Drawing Lessons
by Vegorott
Summary: Jack only wished to show Chase his newest invention and ends up getting drawing lessons from the warlord, but Chase ends up getting a science lesson as well. Rated T: Mild Swearing
1. Outlining

Jack felt the breeze rush past his face as he flew up the side of the mountain cliff, his heli-pack lightly buzzing and arms filled with pens, pencils, blueprints and scrap paper. He regretted his messy gathering of his belongings as he struggled to keep everything from falling, but he was really excited to show his idol an amazing idea that he had and didn't think of putting everything into his pack instead of scooping it up and flying off.

Ever since moving into Chase Young's lair, Jack grew into the habit of going to the bottom of the mountain whenever he wished to work on blueprints or new inventions, not wanting his belongings to get in the warlord's way and not wanting the painful consequence if Chase were to trip over one of his inventions.

"Chase!" Jack called as he landed, seeing the man practicing his tai-chi.

"Not now, Spicer." Chase stated, not looking at Jack. His eyes closed, body slowly moving and his breathing long and heavy. Jack let out an impatient huff, but he knew better than to protest and sat down. He rested his elbows on his knees and pressed is face into his hands.

"Damn." Jack muttered as he watched the warrior moving, wondering if one day he could be that fluid with his movements instead of tripping over his own feet every other second. He sat there for a good five minutes before thinking of something he wanted to do while he waited.

Jack grabbed a empty sheet of paper and was going to start working on more details for his new invention, but kept getting distracted by Chase. The warrior's movements kept catching his eyes and making it impossible to concentrate. Without much thought, Jack started drawing random things instead. His small doodles scratchy and cartoon like since he was used to using rulers and compasses for his blueprints to keep everything aligned and even. He wasn't sure how long he was drawing and he didn't realize what he was now working on until he felt a strong hand rest on his shoulder. Jack shrieked in shock and would've fallen over if it wasn't for the tight grip on him. Jack felt his heart skip in fear when he saw that it was Chase touching him and kneeling next to him, staring at his papers.

"Is that supposed to be me, Spicer?" Chase asked, pointing with his other hand at the center of the page in Jack's lap. Jack's eyes went wide when he realized that he had indeed been drawing Chase Young.

"I-I guess..." Jack stuttered.

"You guess? It's a simple yes or no question. Is that me or not?" Chase asked again.

"Yeah, I mean-I mean I didn't mean to, shit, it kind of just happened and-"

"Not bad." Chase interrupted Jack's rapid attempt at an explanation, removing his hand from the younger man's shoulder.

"What?" Jack looked at the man in confusion, did he actually compliment him?

"You're style is child-like, not shocking considering who you are, but it's not that bad of a drawing." Jack stared wide-eyed at Chase, was this really happening? "You need to work on proportions." Chase took on the the pencils and started to lightly sketch over the drawing of himself. "There's nothing wrong with exaggeration, especially with your cartoon format, but the whole body needs to match those exaggerations." Jack was still star-struck at what was happening, was Chase Young, _the_ Chase Young, helping him with his drawing ability? "I know my hands are a little big, but you've drawn them in a manor that makes them larger than my body, unless you planned that with the intention to mock me." Chase said with a soft glare towards Jack, daring him to say it.

"No! No! Of course not! I just don't know how to draw hands!" Jack stated, flinching and expecting a punch. Chase only raised a brow before sketching a smaller pair of hands.

"And another thing, the lower part of my armor is not a skirt. It is sectioned into several parts for movability." Chase continued editing the drawing.

"I was working on it, I haven't been able to erase the lines yet." Jack protested.

"Erasing the lines will not help the fact that you have the bottom of my armor flowing away from my legs in the manor of a short skirt. Unless you wish to draw me in such an unmasculine fashion, and I suggest you don't if you value your life, you need to draw the armor closer to my legs." Chase dropped the pencil and stood up, patting his armor. "As you can see, the armor is actually touching my leg, no space between." He stated.

"Yeah." Jack said in agreement.

"Also, my sash it tied around my waist, not my hips." Chase added, hands where he was talking about.

"I did draw it on your waist." Jack said, pointing to his drawing.

"Yes, but you made the sash much too thick and it covers both my waist and hips." Chase corrected.

"Easy fix, just cut it in half." Jack grabbed the pencil and added a line through the center of the over-drawn sash. "Anything else I need to fix?" Chase stepped back over towards the younger man and looked at the drawing for a moment.

"You should be fine after making those adjustments." Chase said, sounding satisfied. Jack smiled at the older man, getting no response since Chase saw another one of Jack's pages, this time being the blueprint Jack had originally flown to the top of the mountain for. "This looks exactly like my armor, why is there a drawing of my armor with notes around it?"

"That's actually why I came up here." Jack dropped the paper and stood up, pencil still in hand. "I had planned out some updates that I could do to your armor."

"Is there something wrong with my armor currently, Spicer?" Chase asked, harshly.

"Not at all!" Jack held his hands up in defense, waving them wildly. "I just thought I could add to it to make it even better."

"Like what?" Chase growled.

"You know those spikes that you have in your shoulders." Jack patted the area he spoke of, the said spikes coming out and making him snatch his hand away. "Yeah, those." Jack checked his hand to make sure he wasn't stabbed. "Anyway, you know that those spikes are stuck there. I was working on a way for you to be able to remove the spikes, use them as a weapon in a life-or-death situation, but also add in a homing-chip of some sorts, so the spike would return to your armor and go back in whenever you wanted." He pointed to the markings on the blueprint with the pencil, showing Chase his notes about the suggested function.

"Interesting." Chase admitted.

"I wanted to run this idea by you first since I didn't know if you mind if I used the armor you're currently wearing or if I should make a separate set of shoulder plates and find a way to attach them or replace the ones or something." Jack explained.

"I see." Chase mused, studying the blueprint. "And the others parts? There are several other drawings that look like more attachments of some sort."

"Yeah, I've been working on making my own metallic microlattice." Jack said.

"Metallic Microlattice?"

"It's a very light and strong metal that's made of an ultra-light metal foam. It was developed a few years ago in California actually." Jack started speaking every fast and with his hands as he explained. "The metallic microlattice is composed of a network of interconnecting hollow struts. Each strut is about 100 micrometers in diameter, with a wall 100 nanometers thick and-" Jack stopped when he saw Chase's face, the warlord confused and uninterested at the same time. "Sorry." He said softly.

"You're fine." Chase muttered. "So what do you plan on doing with this Microlattice?"

"I was gonna put it between two cloths, since I'm don't know how the metal would react to an immortal's flesh, I'm still not even sure how my microlattice would react to normal flesh and I'd either layer it over or under your armor as an extra layer of protection. Not that you need it or anything." Jack quickly added, his hands waving again.

"How much of this microlattice would you be able to make?" Chase asked, rolling up the blueprint.

"If I can get the nickel-phosphorus base to work out for me, I should be able to make a ton of it since those two elements aren't that hard to gather." Jack stated. Chase handed Jack his blueprint back, his hand still on the paper as he spoke.

"If I can guarantee that you will have all of the nickel-phosphorus that you could dream of, would you be willing to make new armor for my warriors and maybe even myself if this plan of yours comes through?" Chase asked.

"O-Of course!" Jack stuttered, shocked that Chase was so willing to accept his idea. "Easily! No problem! No need to worry! No-"

"Good, then." Chase cut off Jack, not needing to hear more from the younger man. He released the blueprint and turned around. "Gather your belongings and head inside, dinner should be ready soon and we'll discuss in more detail about your microlattice." Chase suddenly turned around back towards Jack, as if he had forgotten something. "And, one more thing-" Chase grabbed Jack by the front of his shirt and lifted him off of the ground, making sure that the shorter man could look him in the eye. "-if you tell anyone I was this kind to you, I will rip your throat out with my bare teeth without a moment's thought." Jack only let out a little yelp of agreement and was dropped. He patted his body to make sure that he was alive and uninjured. "I'll see you at the dining table." Chase said and walked away.

Jack stood there for a second, still stunned by what had just happened between him and Chase, were they friends at the moment? Whatever they were, Jack was just happy to not have been punched by the warrior for drawing him and suggesting improvements to his armor. He smiled a little and bent down to gather his things.

"Oh, fuck me!" Jack shouted when a strong gust of wind blew all of his papers away.

* * *

My first time writing for Xiaolin Showdown, hopefully it turned out alright. I decided to give this area a try after finding the show online and re-watching the entire series in a week, I regret nothing.  
I am currently unsure if this story will remain a one-shot or if I will go with some ideas I've had and make it longer. Let me know in the reviews or pm me about it.  
I'm open to any critiques, let me know if a character seemed too out of character or if there's a spelling or grammar error.  
Thanks for reading!


	2. Shading

Chase stepped out of his lair, taking in a deep breath of the crisp evening air before a pointed ear twitched, hearing the sound of rustling paper. He kept his eyes closed and his hands held behind his back.

"Drawing again, Spicer?" He asked, hearing the younger man yelp and curse with surprise.

"Y-Yeah." Jack stuttered. "How long have you been there?"

"It doesn't matter, are you working on the armor that we spoke of yesterday?" Chase glanced over at Jack and saw him put down a green colored pencil.

"Not at the moment, I needed to take a break." Jack admitted.

"Why's that?" Chase turned his head all the way towards Jack, watching the pale man play with the corner of his paper.

"The UV light that I'm shining on the mask won't polymerise the liquid monomer." Jack stated. "So then there's no formation of a self-propagating photopolymer wave-guide within the monomer reservoir." Jack let out a huff and looked at Chase, seeing the same confused face as yesterday when he was explaining what metallic microlattice was. "It won't stay together."

"I'm disappointed to hear that, Spicer." Chase said as he moved his head back away. Jack felt his entire body droop, sad that he had disappointed the older man.

"Sorry, I'm trying my best." Jack said softly.

"I assumed as much." Chase paused for a moment before walking towards the others man. "Are you in need of an assistant to help you make the metallic microlattice? I can send one of my warriors down to your little lab to assist you in any way they can."

"No, no, no, I don't need one of your cats-"

"-warriors."

"-in my lab messing everything up." Jack finished.

"My warriors will not ruin your lab, they are trained and well disciplined." Chase stated.

"Whatever you say, but they're not trained to deal with highly expensive and rare equipment." Jack protested. "The monks have already destroyed enough of it and fixing them is sometimes worse than making them from scratch."

"Alright, just see to making the microlattice as soon as you can." Chase said before moving his hands to his waist and leaning over, looking at Jack's paper. "What are you drawing this time?"

"I was coloring, actually." Jack admitted.

"I'm glad to see that you took my advice and fixed my picture." Chase mused, seeing the drawing of himself now filled with color. "You even colored it."

"Yeah, I needed to get my mind off of the microlattice before I ripped my own hair out." Jack muttered. "Making it shouldn't be this hard."

"Do not overwork yourself, Spicer. I know from experience that a stressed mind does not function as well as a relaxed one." Chase stated.

"Yeah, yeah." Jack sighed. "Still sucks though."

"I understand and not to change the subject or anything, but I've noticed that you've attempted to shade the drawing." Chase noted.

"'Attempted'?" Jack asked.

"I see how you've tried to fade the colors into a darker shade, but did you use black to do so?" Chase took the paper so he could get a closer look.

"Is there a problem with that?"

"You're not supposed to use black to shade other colors, it's very rare for it to turn out nicely and you lack the technical skills to accomplish such a task." Chase gave Jack the drawing back.

"Well, what am I supposed to do then?" Jack asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"For starters, you've made my eyes way to orange, they're not that bright in normal lighting." Chase poked the eyes of the drawing with a gloved finger, the sarcasm going completely unnoticed.

"It's a little too late to go back and fix it." Jack said.

"Then you'll simply redraw it if you wish for the quality of the drawing to be better than what an infant can do." Chase stated as he knelt down in front of Jack.

"Redraw it? It took me hours just to draw one of your damned hands!" Jack snapped.

"Do not raise your voice at me, Spicer." Chase said with a glare that made a shiver of fear travel down Jack's back. "You lack discipline and control, perhaps teaching you something like the art of drawing and coloring will help you be less useless around here. The only reason that you are allowed to stay here currently is the metallic microlattice armor that you are working on." Jack's look of hurt was ignored as Chase grabbed several colored pencils and flipped the drawing over to the blank side. "We'll start off simple with red." Chase held his hand out, the pencils sitting there and waiting for Jack to grab them. Jack let out a sigh, figuring that this was going to be the only way of being with his idol without getting injured and took the pencils.

"Wait, if we're shading red, why do I have orange and purple?" Jack flinched after asking the question, fearing he was going to get punched.

"Have you ever seen dark red before in real life?" Chase asked instead, watching Jack reopen his eyes.

"Yeah, I guess." Jack said.

"Think of how that red looked, think of freshly shed blood. Have you ever noticed that when the color is dark, it looks as if it has a hue of purple." Jack answered with a head nod this time. "And an apple that is not pure red, how the fading color seems orange." Chase grabbed a spare red pencil and shaded in a small circle, the outer edges darker and growing lighter towards the center. "Most would find this to be enough, but if you want the drawing to look realistic and not child-like, you add in separate colors as the shades." Chase took a purple pencil and colored the edge of the circle, going inwards and stopping a third of the way, one end thicker than the other. "See?" Jack only watched the man in awe, shocked that he had never learned this technique. "Then, with the orange, you do the opposite." Chase grabbed an orange pencil and repeated the process as the purple, only starting with the center and coloring towards the edge. "You also can go back with the red to blend in the two other colors to make the shading smoother." Chase grabbed the red pencil again and did as he said, the colored ball now finished. "Simple, yes?"

"That's so cool." Jack said in a soft voice.

"Now, I expect you to practice with the red until you get the concept and I will lay out other color combinations, so you may practice and learn those as well." Chase went through the bag of pencils Jack had laying next to him and sorted out several more trios of colors before standing back up. "Do not spend an excessive amount of time practicing your coloring, I still want the metallic microlattice armor done as soon as possible. If they accomplish what you claim that they can do, then I want my warriors to be protected with the highest quality with no unnecessary delays." Chase put his hands behind his back agsin and waited for an answer.

"Of course, I'll go back to it first thing in the morning." Jack promised.

"Good. Now, when you've mastered shading with the red; clean up and come in for dinner. One of your machine's managed to convince me to allow it to make something called a 'waffle' and I'm sure he's going to try to poison me to some degree, so I wish to have a taste tester." Chase had started walking away during his explanation, but stopped to speak over his shoulder. "Think you can handle that, Spicer?"

"No problem!" Jack said a little too loudly and held a thumbs-up towards the warlord. Chase only looked away and walked back into the lair, leaving Jack alone again.

Jack couldn't believe it, he was invited to dinner, twice! Two nights in a row, too! He couldn't help himself from letting out a small squeal in joy. Maybe after completing the microlattice, he would fully convince Chase that he wasn't useless and he'd allow him to stay permanently. That'd mean more private drawing lessons, more dinners and more time spent with idol without being hit or thrown off a cliff or horrendously insulted and treated like trash. Jack didn't really know what he truly wanted from Chase, but some form of a friendship sounds good enough at the moment.

* * *

Well, looks like this is going to be a full story. I have so much planned for this plot and I didn't want to keep the story as only a one-shot.  
Thank you to Freaku for your review, you were the final push to convince me to make the story much longer.


	3. Patching

Chase sat in his throne room, his entire body relaxed against the back of his seat. Eyes closed and breathing smooth and even. The warlord's mind was empty as he focused on calming every part of his body, every muscle slowly feeling as if they were numb and his surroundings were forgotten. Chase was about to completely drift off when there was a loud bang, shaking the entire room. His eyes flashed open and were glowing in anger from being interrupted for a brief moment. Several of his warriors had been resting around him and were all standing and hunched up, waiting for Chase's order.

"Stay. I will handle this myself." Chase stood from his throne and walked out of the lair, his warriors settling back down. He stepped out to the edge of the mountain cliff, not having seen anyone threats and tried to find the source of the explosion. The warlord sniffed the air and smelled smoke and a metallic taste went to the back of his throat. Chase sighed, an assumption of what had occurred ran though his mind, but a mild case of curiosity made him calmly travel down to the bottom of the mountain.

"Damn it!" A curse echoed out of a small cave Jack had claimed to use as a lab, Chase not caring that he had done so. The cave was not used by him or his warriors and with the scientist spending much of his time in there working, he did not bother Chase as often because of it.

"Spicer, what was that sound?" Chase asked, walking into the lab and finding the walls scorched and small metal parts scattered about the floor. Jack did not answer Chase's question and went on a rampage of harsh curses, the young man looking as if he was tossed into the wall near the entrance. "What happened?"

"I don't know." Jack groaned as he struggled to his feet, using the wall as an aid. "Something must have gotten cross-contaminated from my other machines and caused an erratic reaction with the catalyst solution." Jack rubbed the side of his head, realizing that he was speaking in a manor that Chase did not understand. "It blew up." He added and saw that the older man was sniffing the air, opening his mouth at one point to taste it. "What?"

"I taste blood." Chase stepped over towards Jack and sniffed again, the scent getting stronger. "You've been injured."

"What?" Jack repeated, adjusting his red-sleeveless shirt before patting his body, stopping and letting out a groan when he felt his hand getting wet after touching the back of his shoulder. "Oh, gross." He sighed, seeing the blood on his hand and let out a weak laugh. "It does look purple-ish." Jack put his hand down and dry-heaved. "I think I'm gonna be sick." He put the back of his other hand against his forehead. "I feel faint. I don't feel any pain. Am I going to die? Is this why dying feels like? I'm too young to-" Jack stopped and yelped when Chase grabbed his arm and forced him to turn around. He let out several unintelligible sounds when he felt Chase's thumb sliding over the wound.

"The injury is no where near serious, looks like a deep scrap. A simple cleaning and patching will prevent it from getting infected and shouldn't take long for it to heal." Chase stated, releasing Jack's arm. "And for the not feeling any pain, you have a high amount of adrenaline running through you and when it finally stops, you will end up being in pain." Chase continued and found a piece of metal stuck to the wall close to where Jack had landed, blood on it's tip. "Looks like I've found the culprit, are you in danger of being poisoned in any way with this metal?" The warlord plucked the metal off of the wall and held it in front of Jack, who had pressed his hand into his cut.

"No, that's part of the table I was working on." Jack answered before peeking over his shoulder, trying to get a view of the injury. "Damn, I left all of my medical stuff at home."

"No need, I have bandages in my lair. We will go back, clean your wound and patch you up." Chase stated. "We will also be putting a numbing cream on it so when your adrenaline does wear off, I do not have to listen to you whine and cry about being in pain instead of working on the microlattice." He added, speaking a little quicker than what Jack was used to hearing. Jack soon forgot about the speech pattern when he thought of an idea.

"What if we just used magic to heal it? Surly there's like a spell or something that insta-heals things." Jack suggested.

"You do not need magic for a minor wound, Spicer. If we used magic to fix every single injury then your body would never know how to heal itself." Chase said, heading out of the lab with Jack following like a pet. "Your body would grow weak and then the simplest wound could easily become a death threat if you are unable to summon any magic." He continued, stopping when he saw that Jack was about to put on his heli-pack. "Absolutely not." Chase growled.

"What? It's how I get up there." Jack protested. "That weird path thing you've got is too much effort."

"Your device is probably covered in an unnecessary amount of dirt and oil and your wound does not need that. We do not want any chances of infection. Now, walk." Chase ordered, leading the way without waiting for a response.

"Bossy McBosser pants." Jack muttered under his breath and struggled up the mountain path, gasping for air by the time the two men reached the top.

"You'd think with all of the running away that you do, you'd be able to handle a small climb." Chase said, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"That was...no...small climb." Jack said, leaning over and still holding his shoulder. "We must have been climbing for hours."

"It was ten minutes." Chase corrected.

"What the fuck, man!?" Jack whined.

"Quit your complaining and get inside before I change my mind and let you suffer." Chase warned, watching Jack suddenly catching his breath and sprint into the lab. He let out a sigh when Jack let out a shriek of fear not even a second later. The young man had probably ran into one of his warriors. Even with the fact that they were less likely to attack him, Jack still had a large fear of the jungle cats. Chase couldn't blame him too much for his fear, since he had used them to forcibly remove Jack from him presence.

"Nice kitty, good kitty, please don't eat me." Chase walked in to find Jack sitting on top of a rock ledge, one of his warriors sitting at the bottom and smirking, obviously amused by the young man's reaction. "Your cat-"

"Warrior."

"-tried to eat me!" Jack yelled.

"What are you speaking of, Spicer? My warriors do not attack without my command." Chase stated.

"I ran in and it started to lick my blood! It was getting a taste of me!" Jack cried.

"Raja, get Nani and both of you gather my medical supplies." Chase ordered before turning his attention back to Jack. "Several notes for your accusation. Raja is a male, not an it. He was only following his instincts and cleaning the wound, as animals tend to do."

"That's gross, I have cat slobber all over me now."

"A feline's mouth is much cleaner than a human's. It's especially cleaner than yours." Chase added the last comment and smirked a little at Jack's offended huff. "And if you continue to reek of fear every time that you are near one of my warriors, they will never respect you and will continuously treat you as either a mindless kit or a play-toy."

"Can you blame-"

"No excuses. Now get down." Jack let out several mutters as he climb back down. Chase waited till Jack was on the ground before walking off, Jack following without needing to be told. Chase was relieved to not hear Jack complain about how many steps they were taking. "Sit." He ordered, pointing to a marble bench when they reached a large and open floor. Jack obeyed with no protest, rubbing his shoulder and showing that the adrenaline was gone. "Looks like I was correct." Chase said. One of his ears twitched when he heard a soft mewl before a soft body pressed against the back of his legs. He turned around to face his warriors, the two feline's carrying baskets in their mouths. "Good job." Chase rubbed the top of both warrior's head before taking the baskets. "You're dismissed." The warriors bowed their heads and padded off. Chase went back over to Jack and knelt on to the floor, the baskets next to him. Jack opened his mouth to say something when Chase pulled out several sharp blades from one of the baskets. He swallowed as one of the blades was almost as large as Chase's hand, the metal reflecting in the light before being sat down on the ground with the others. "They're not going to be used on you, Spicer. They're simply covering the bandages that I need."

"What are they used for?" Jack couldn't help himself from asking as Chase continued to empty the baskets. Several white bandages came out of the one basket and Chase was now removing leaves and bottles from the other.

"They're used for cutting the bandages to appropriate length and for when something gets lodged into the flesh that needs to be removed." Chase stacked the baskets and set them aside.

"If you're immortal, why do you need all of these medical things?"

"I may be immortal, but I can still get injured, as can my warriors and any allies that I require." Chase ripped a leaf and dropped it into a small bowl.

"Oh. I thought you just wore the armor as a fashion accessory." Jack admitted as Chase soaked a cloth in water.

"Clothes mean nothing to me, Spicer. I could walk around bare and have no worries. But I do like to have precautions since I do not wish to deal with healing if I do get injured." Jack made sure that he didn't say anything about the 'no clothes' comment and the contradiction of a body being weak if it doesn't heal and continued rubbing his shoulder.

"What are you making?" He asked instead.

"A numbing and anti-bacterial potion." Chase answered, adding several drops of liquid from a bottle to the bowl.

"That's so cool." Jack said in awe as Chase dipped the hand that was covered in Jack's blood into the bowl, the liquid turning white and as it was stirred with his fingers, the liquid started clumping and was soon a thick paste.

"Indeed, magic does have its uses." Chase said and stood up after grabbing his supplies. The warlord walked around Jack and laid out the items next to the younger man. Jack's hand was slapped away from his shoulder and was replaced with the wet rag, the cold making Jack shiver. The cloth was soon dropped in front of Jack, it landing in his hands. "Clean your hands, I will not have you spreading your blood all over my lair."

"Okay." Jack said as he did what he was told. "Is that potion thing going to hurt-" He let out a curse of pain, dropping the cloth as Chase slapped some of the paste over his wound.

"Yes." Chase stated.

"That was cause I called your warriors 'cats', wasn't it?" Jack gasped as more of the potion was rubbed in, stinging the wound intensely.

"I don't know what you mean, Spicer." Chase said, the sarcasm dripping in his voice. Jack didn't bother responding to that comment as the potion finally kicked in and he could no longer feel the stinging. "Are you numb?"

"Yes. Thank every divine creature in the universe." Jack groaned.

"After I patch this up, we'll go to the dining room and if I'm content with your color shading, we will begin your next drawing lesson."

"But, my lab."

"Your lab can wait till tomorrow unless there is something down there that would cause another explosion."

"I don't even know how much damage that explosion caused. I hope I don't have to start all over." Jack sighed.

"Just get the armor done." Chase lightly patted the bandages after getting them placed and taped. "You're done, help me clean up and we'll head down for you lesson."

"Yes, sir." Jack said with a small smile, weakly chuckling when Chase's only response was an eye-roll and scoff.


	4. Blending

Jack sat at the end of a very large dining table, waiting for Chase to return with his coloring supplies. The warlord had ordered the genius to give him his pencils and paper so there was no chance of him losing the materials. Jack attempted to protest, saying that he's handled not losing them for most of his life, but was immediately silenced by the raising of a hand and was told to retrieve them or all of his personal belongings had to no promise of staying intact if Chase had to search for the coloring supplies himself.

Jack started messing with his bandage, the adhesive on the edges beginning to make his sensitive skin itch. He yelped in pain and shock when Chase slapped his hand away, seeming to appear from nowhere.

"Stop it." Chase ordered in a monotone voice. Jack only responded with a low whine and slumped in his seat. "Do I have to teach you posture as well?" Chase commented as he placed a basket on the table. "Sit properly or I will tie you to the chair."

"Yes, mom." Jack muttered under his breath, straightening himself back up.

"If you wish to refer to me as the title of a parent, I suggest using the gender title that I was born and identify as." Jack wanted to sink back down into his seat, but knew he would be scolded again if he did so. He noticed that the plastic bag he had used to keep his pencils together was replaced with a piece of rope. The bundle was placed in front of him, along with several sheets of paper.

Jack couldn't prevent his mind for wondering, where did Chase put the plastic bag? He's never seen a trash can in the large lair, maybe it was hidden somewhere he's yet explored. But why would Chase need it? Everything he used was washed by his warriors and used again. Jack had kept all of his trash in a large bucket in his lab, it was filled to the brim with empty pudding cups, candy wrappers and the Lunchables that he ate whenever he didn't feel like flying up to the lair to grab food. Jack would eventually have to clear out that garbage before it starts to get in the way of his machines. Could he set it all on fire? Perhaps make a little bonfire a good few miles away from the lair so Chase wouldn't have to deal with the smell of burning plastic. It's not that bad, but Chase's strong nose would most likely not appreciate being assaulted with that sent.

"I see that you've caught on to color shading." Chase's statement snapped Jack out of his thoughts. "We can move on to blending."

"Blending?" Jack asked.

"Going from one color to another." Chase explained.

"But wasn't that what was I was doing with the shading?"

"There's a bit of a difference. With shading you're showing the lightness and the darkness of one color and with blending you'll be changing one color into a different one, their secondary color in the center."

"Oh." Jack held out the word for a second. "What?"

"Here, allow me to show you." Chase went over to Jack, grabbing a red and blue pencil along the way. "Surly you know that if you combine red and blue you get purple."

"I am kind of a genius." Jack stated.

"So you claim." Jack was about to protest and give several examples of his super intellect, but stopped when he saw that Chase was no longer listening as he started coloring a long rectangle with the red pencil. The red was its darkest on one end and slowly faded out towards the other, reminding Jack of the circle that was drawn the other day. Chase grabbed the blue and started coloring on the other end of the rectangle, doing the same as the red, but the blue started to blend with the red in the center. The warlord went back and forth with the red and blue until it met his desire, the colors blending perfectly together with a beautiful shade of purple in the center.

"Wow." Jack ended up whispering, not seeing the light smirk that crossed Chase's lips for a brief second before he pushed the paper and pencils in front of Jack.

"Practice this until you can do it seamlessly and then we'll move on to other color combinations." Chase said.

"Does it matter which colors you blend?" Jack asked, grabbing the red.

"For the most part, no, but some colors being combined end up looking muddy. It's usually recommended to blend two primary colors together." Chase stated as he, without much thought, grabbed one of Jack's yellow pencils and rubbed the tip against his gloved finger.

"Like yellow and blue?"

"Yes. Although, I will admit I do have some difficulties with blending with yellow and blue. The yellow seems to always have a hint of blue in its end no matter what I do." Jack was shocked that Chase would ever admit to having a fault, then again, not being able to do a form of coloring is not much of a fault to have when it comes to how much Chase has mastered in his fifteen-hundred years of life. "Perhaps I will join you and practice myself." Chase sat down in the chair next to Jack, setting a sheet of paper in front of him and grabbing a blue pencil as well. Jack held back with all of his might to not freak out about Chase Young sitting next to him peacefully and coloring. Who else could ever say that they've done this and lived? Jack didn't hold back his smile though, knowing that Chase was not looking at him as he attempted to copy the colored rectangle Chase had drawn.

"Um. I think I did something wrong." Jack said, staring at a solid purple block on his paper, looking nothing like Chase's example.

"What was your first hint, Spicer?" Chase stood back up, one hand resting against the back of Jack's chair while the other took the red pencil.

Chase's chest was very close to Jack's head as the older man bent over to re-show Jack how blending worked. Jack had to, once again, contain himself as the warlord got even closer when he had to reach over to grab the blue pencil. Chase was speaking to Jack and all the pale man could hear was the blood rushing through his body and his heartvpounding madly. He didn't know whether to be terrified or excited. Chase being this close meant that he wasn't completely repulsed by Jack, but at the same time, with one swift movement of his hand, he could be dead. His neck snapped, throat ripped out, eyes gouged. Jack quickly stopped his train of thought and shivered in fear, the movement not going unnoticed by Chase, but no action was taken about it.

"Th-Thanks." Jack stuttered as the red pencil was placed in his hand. Chase paused for a second, confused by the sudden stutter since Jack had been able to speak very clearly just moments ago. He debated for a brief moment before sitting back down, deciding that it was best not to question the younger man. Chase was thankful that Jack had not done his 'overly fanatic fan' routine when he accidentally got closer than intended.

Chase settled down into his coloring again, but could not get a nagging question out of his mind. How did Jack manage to make his entire self smell of fresh raspberries when he knew that the pale man did not bathe as often as he should. Perhaps it's a smelling spray or a form of lotion that Jack used, but why would a man use a fruit scent? Then again, he has met plenty of men who preferred using the scent of fruit to hide their orders from either their mates or from the prey they were hunting, tricking them into believing that they were safe. Jack was no hunter nor did he have a mate to mask his scent from. Was Jack's natural scent raspberries? It wasn't unknown for men to have natural fruit-like smells, but it was very rare. Chase tried to remember what it meant for men to have fruit scents and failed of recalling the fact when a loud groaning sound interrupted his thoughts.

"Hungry, Spicer?" Chase asked.

"Maybe a little." Jack admitted with a weak laugh.

"Then we shall pause from our lesson and eat dinner, it is getting quite late and I am getting rather hungry myself." Chase summoned one of his warriors and told him what to gather for dinner, asking for plenty of fruit since Chase had a sudden craving for them.


	5. Smashing

"Piece of shit!" Jack cursed as he whacked a broken robot with a wrench, the machine sparked and almost caught Jack's shirt on fire. The genius patted the scorch marks on his shirt, thinking that with his luck the shirt would catch on fire anyways. "You suck." He added with a mutter and kicked the robot over, giving up on the machine for now.

"Frustrated, Spicer?" Chase asked as he entered the lab.

"No! Not at all! What could have given it away!?" Jack shouted, throwing the wrench across the room. The tool smashed into the jagged rock wall, breaking the top of the wrench off. "Are you fucking kidding me!?" Jack let out a shout before grabbing an empty beaker and flung that against the wall, the glass shattering and raining to the floor. "My lab's already a mess! Might as well just break everything else too!" The genius started throwing random beakers and tools against the wall, yelling the whole time. He was about to chuck one of his screwdrivers when he was stopped mid-throw.

"Enough." Chase stated, holding Jack's arm back with a hand. "I've allowed your little tantrum to last long enough, now it's time to calm down and collect yourself." Chase removed the screwdriver from Jack's hand and sat it down on a nearby table before releasing Jack's arm. "There's no need to act like a child."

"I'm not acting like a child!" Jack snapped, not seeing the face of annoyance from Chase. "My entire lab is ruined! Everything is either singed , shattered or has a chunk of metal embedded so far into it the gears are chipped!" Chase crossed his arms and allowed Jack to rant, knowing that there was no talking to the younger man when he went off. "I tried turning on one of my machines and a shit ton of glass got inside of it and it stripped my gears raw! Half of those gears I had to forge myself and the others were expensive as hell and-" Jack stopped when his voice cracked. The genius stood there for a second before his entire body drooped, giving up.

"Are you done?" Chase asked.

"Yeah." Jack answered in a whisper, slipping off his goggles to rub his hands through his hair. "Just upset, is all."

"I see that." Chase nudged away a large piece of glass that had landed next to him with a foot.

"I've spent the entire day trying to fix this damn machine." Jack kicked the machine he had been working on, hopping back and cursing more when it sparked again.

"What does it do?" Chase walked over to the robot and ran a hand along it, feeling heat come off of it. Chase didn't know much about mechanics, but he was sure that was a bad sign.

"It's my tool-bot." Jack stated.

"Tool-bot?"

"He-"

"He?"

"Yes, he." Jack rubbed the side of his head before continuing. "He floats around with all of my tools inside of him; my wrenches, screwdrivers, blades, everything. He helps me from losing them since he's programmed to gather all of my tools at the end of the day when it put him in night mode and if I'm looking for one, he's able to search for it and give it to me."

"That's actually not that bad of an idea, Spicer." Chase admitted. Jack felt a small flutter of head in his stomach after being complimented, but the feeling didn't last long as he watched Chase reach into the robot, pulling out one of the wires, a large portion of the plastic covering missing. The warlord hissed and yanked his hand back out when the wire sent a shock up his arm. "I wouldn't do that."

"Thanks for the warning." Chase muttered, rubbing his arm as the strange feeling of numbness was fading away.

"Sorry." Jack went over to the tool-bot and reached into it as well, flipping a switch the turned of the lights inside of it.

"Why are you attempting to fix this one machine when your entire lab is still covered in scorches, metal and glass shards?" Chase asked.

"I was planning on having it search for the rest of my tools while I swept, so then I could see which ones needed replaced. I obviously need a new combination wrench." Jack gestured towards the broken tool on the floor. "I might as well just buy a new set, it's hard as hell to find a specific size on its own with the stupid brand I buy."

"With what funds? From what I've seen you don't work." Chase moved over to a nearby table and leaned against it.

"Where do you think I get all of this equipment and snacks?" Jack asked.

"I assumed you stole them, you are evil, remember?" Chase scoffed.

"Yes, but it's much easier and faster to just buy this stuff." Jack said as he grabbed his wallet from his back pocket and pulled out plastic card. "I use my parent's credit card."

"They must have left quite an inheritance if you can spend money for freely and carelessly." Chase said, not bothering to ask what a credit card was since he truly didn't care.

"They're not dead." Jack chuckled as he put his card and wallet away.

"Then why are you here instead of at home with them?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Jack looked away from Chase.

"But you said you had nowhere to live when you were begging me to stay." Chase said.

Jack crossed his arms, remembering when that had happened. He was on his knees, hands clasped together as he pleaded and begged the older man to allow him to stay. He almost started crying and had his lowered his body to the floor when Chase finally agreed, stating that he had been useful in the past, but he added that if he couldn't find another use for the genius after a certain amount of time, he was out. Jack knew in the back of his mind that the only moment he was allowed to stay was because of the metallic microlattice and wasn't sure if he'd be able to stay after it was finished, Chase was true to his word, but how long after that would he be tolerated?

"I didn't have anywhere to live." Jack stated.

"But you're parents-"

"I don't want to talk about it!" Jack repeated, louder and throwing his arms down. Chase stared at Jack for a moment before speaking.

"I understand, to some degree. You're obviously too tired and frustrated to have a proper conversation without throwing a tantrum."

"I'm not-" Jack stopped himself and let out a slow exhale. "You're right. I guess." He added the last part under his breath.

"Have you eaten today?" Chase asked. "I've yet to see you inside of the lair all day and you tend to go to the kitchen for food several times." Jack couldn't help himself from feeling joy that Chase noticed him whenever he went to the lair and didn't seem disgusted by it.

"Not really. I've ate some pudding cups and that's about it, I've been too busy to get hungry." Jack admitted.

"That explains your irritability, people usually get angry easily when they're not properly fed."

"Hangry." Jack said.

"Do I even want to know what the means?"Chase asked.

"It's just hungry and angry put together. It's a simpler way to say that people get mad when they want food."

"Is that a phrase that's commonly used?"

"Kind of."

"So, if I wish to say that someone is angry because of their hunger, I say hangry?" Jack had to bite his tongue to prevent himself from laughing at Chase saying 'hangry' in such a serious tone.

"Yep." Jack nodded his head just in case he wasn't able to be heard since the word came out very fast and soft.

"Interesting. Well then, let's get dinner before your hanger worsens." Chase left the lab and didn't see Jack struggling to breath as he held back more laughter.


	6. Cleaning

Chase watched as two of his warriors spared with each other, the fight soon becoming them rolling around and playing. The two warriors had been friends before Chase claimed them and their friendship had lasted for the hundreds of years they've been Chase's warriors. He wondered how such a friendship could last, how neither of them had betrayed each other. Chase knew that the two argued, their roars echoed across the lair and it always ended before Chase could locate them. The warlord would find the two laying next to each other, licking each other's heads in apology and curling up for a nap together.

Chase once wanted to know how strong of a bond the two had and separated them for a week, keeping them on opposite sides of the lair and making sure they didn't have any meals or hunting trips together. The week was nothing but an annoyance for Chase. The two wailed all night and refused to get up during the day. They didn't react to getting kicked, death threats or being dragged to a different area by the skin of their neck. The two were his best warriors and did not want to get rid of them because of their friendship or whatever the two claimed it to be. Chase finally allowed them to be together again and they immediately pounced on each other, rolling around in joy, and holding on to each other as if to never let themselves be separated again. Felines tend to get attached to each other a little stronger than humans, usually mating for life, but betrayal was bound to happen. One of them was going to make a mistake and upset the other.

Chase knew from experience that those types of relationships, whether it was friendship or more, never lasted. The other person would always run away in fear or grow bored of the warlord since he wasn't as 'exciting' as they assumed him to be. Chase gave up on those feelings long ago, knowing that getting attached to someone was useless since they were going to leave him at some point, by either death or hatred of the man. Chase knew that no one would ever be willing to stay forever, so what was the point of allowing himself the pain when it was nothing more than a waste of time.

"Um...Chase?" Jack's voice cut off Chase's thoughts.

"Yes, Spicer?" Chase asked, eyes still on his playing warriors.

"Remember when you offered one of your warriors to help me a few days ago?" Jack's said softly.

"Yes, I do recall that moment. What about it?" Chase finally looked at Jack and saw that the younger man was tapping the toes of one of his feet against the ground, showing embarrassment.

"I may or may not need one of them." Jack spoke very fast, making it difficult for the warlord to catch it all.

"Well, which one of them is it? I can not help you if you are not clear in what you need." Chase stated, getting a little hint of amusement when Jack slumped his body back and groaned.

"I need one of your warriors to help me clean my lab." Jack admitted, speaking slow and clearly this time so Chase wouldn't have anything else to mock.

"Raja, Niso." The two warriors stopped playing and sat up, ears perked. "You will be assisting Spicer with his lab, you are to listen to him, understand?" The warriors nodded their heads. "Let's go, we have some work to do." Chase stated as he started walking away.

"Wait, 'we'?" Jack quickly caught up to Chase, the warriors walking behind the two. "You're helping too? Why?"

"At the current moment there are no Wu to gather, the monks have not caught my interest and I wish to do more with my day than watch my warriors spar with each other and I am in no mood to fight myself." Chase explained as the group traveled down to Jack's lab and they were silent the rest of the way until Chase noticed multiple large trash bins with wheels on the bottom of them sitting outside of the lab entrance. "Where did you get the bins?"

"I found a hardware store a couple miles west of here when I was trying to find a dump to put all of my garbage." Jack explained, grabbing one of the bins and wheeled it into the lab.

"Your lab is messier than what it was last night." Chase commented, feeling glass crunch under his foot. He held a hand towards Raja and Niso so the two wouldn't walk in and get their paws cut by the glass.

"I'm bad at cleaning, okay? I tried sweeping up, but them I saw one of my machines and I'd try fixing it, dumping more glass all over the floor and...yeah." Jack picked up a broken beaker, the top of it completely gone, and tossed it into the bin he had brought in.

"Before we begin throwing anything away, we are sweeping all of the glass off of this floor. I will not have my warrior's blood everywhere because you lack the discipline to focus on one task long enough to complete it." Chase took one of the brooms hanging from the wall and shoved it into Jack's arms. Jack didn't know how to react or what to do when Chase snatched the other broom from the wall and began sweeping. "I am not cleaning your lab by myself, Spicer." Chase's snap made Jack flail for a moment before sweeping himself. The two swept in silence and away from each other until everything was gathered in the center of the lab in one pile. Jack grabbed a dustpan and bent over while Chase swept the debris into the pan, Jack had to make several trips before it was all gone.

"There. You're warriors should be able to walk in without worry." Jack said after dumping the last load into the bin.

"Good. Now, what was it that you needed my warriors to assist you with?" Chase asked, returning his boom to the spot he had gotten it from.

"A lot of my machines are beyond repair and are too heavy for me to move them and I've already taken out the parts that can be salvaged." Jack stated as he tossed multiple broken beakers into the bin.

"So you want us to take the heavy parts and throw them away, correct?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Raja, Niso, you're dismissed." Chase said to his warriors, the two felines sharing a brief look before bowing and leaving.

"Why are you sending them away? I thought they were going to help." Jack protested.

"They're not needed if all you require is some strength to move certain parts. I can handle that on my own while you do what you need to." Chase stated.

"Oh. So it's...it's just gonna be us?" Jack let out a weak chuckle.

"Yes. I'm sure the two of us can handle cleaning your lab without my warriors risking injury. Unless there's more to be done than that."

"No, no. We're fine, let's get started." Jack started throwing away metal shards. "I marked all of the machines that need to be tossed with some yellow tape, you can just toss them into the bins and we'll take the bins to the dump when we're done."

"Simple enough." Chase said and began working.

Jack stopped at one point when he was dropping an armful of metal into a bin and saw Chase. He stood there and watched as Chase easily lifted a bot Jack wasn't even able to budge. Chase dropped it into a different bin, wiping his forehead before going and grabbing another machine. Jack looked at Chase's arms and then his own, Chase's were at least twice as large as his and his chest three or more times bigger. It has to come from all of those years of intense training, working himself to his limit and then some. Chase has so much determination and it made Jack wonder if he's always been like that, even before turning to evil. Jack has always admired how Chase was willing to do anything to get what he needed or wanted and had the strength, durability and skills to get them. Jack was stubborn himself, but he would never be able to accomplish what Chase has. Maybe after cleaning the lab, getting the microlattice to work, he could convince Chase to...

"No way." Jack said softly to himself. "I'm lucky enough to get those drawing lessons from him."

"Is there a problem?" Chase asked, holding a machine in his arms and seeing the younger man just standing next to a bin.

"I'm just taking a breather, is all." Jack smiled a little to much, earning an eye roll from the other man.

"As you say." Chase said and dropped the machine into the bin. Chase grunted when some oil came out of the machine and splashed him, the black liquid dripping down his face. Jack didn't even try to hold back his laughter as the warlord ran a finger across an eye, preventing some oil from getting into it. "If you value your life, I recommend ceasing your laughter, Spicer." Chase warned and Jack immediately stopped.

"I think both of us might need a break." Jack suggested and walked over to Chase with a rag.

"Perhaps a little." Chase growled, closing both eyes as oil tried to seep into them.

"Let me help you there." Jack used the rag to clean the oil from Chase's eyes, pulling away as the warlord opened them. Chase saw Jack holding the rag and was standing close to him, a soft smile on his lip and a smudge of grease of his cheek. Chase absentmindedly rubbed the grease off with his thumb, noticing that the cheeks were becoming a light shade of pink. The two stood and stared at each other in silence for a while before Chase let out shout, the oil that was dripping down his face finally getting into his eyes. Chase snatched the rag out of Jack's hand and stormed out of the lab, cleaning all of the oil from his face this time.

Jack didn't know whether to pass-out, flail, scream or all three at the moment. He swallowed as the warm feeling in his chest and the light twisting in his stomach started to fade away. The genius wasn't sure if he wanted the feeling to go away, but knew that they needed to. He knew that he wasn't allowed to have these feelings, feelings he hasn't felt since meeting that one girl in grade-school who was almost as smart as he was and understood how it felt to be ridiculed for his intelligence. Jack knew that he needed to avoid feeling this way, but didn't know if that's what he really wanted.


	7. Shadowing

Jack sat at the edge of the cliff, lightly kicking his feet as he stared down, the ground barely visible through the tree branches and light fog. The young genius shivered as a breeze sent a chill up his spine and made him curl up, wrapping his trench coat tighter around him.

"Chilly morning, isn't it?" Jack was shocked that he didn't flinch from Chase's voice, maybe he was finally used to him suddenly appearing or he was just too cold to care.

"Just a little." Jack chuckled, glancing over his shoulder and seeing that Chase was standing next to him, hands held behind his back.

"I'm surprised that you're not in your lab at the current moment. I actually came out to see if you needed assistance with the rest of it since I was unable to remove all of the machines marked with the yellow tape." Chase stated.

"Yeah. I'm just kind of delaying getting back to working on the lab." Jack admitted, only telling half of the truth.

Jack hasn't been able to go to his lab since that brief moment he and Chase had several days ago. He had spent the rest of that day inside of the lair's library, reading engineering textbooks until he passed out on the couch and has been doing that ever since. Jack was avoiding his lab, knowing that when he went in there he would have to face the feeling he had. He didn't want to accept that he had that feeling about his idol, he didn't care that it was towards another guy, he's never cared about the gender of the person he ended up having some sort of crush on. The feeling tended to go away quickly, but he's never had that warmth travel throughout his entire body from one single touch. This crush was going to be a lot harder than the others to accept that it was never going to happen.

"Do you wish to delay working on your lab longer and begin your next drawing lesson?" Chase asked.

"Yes, please!" Jack quickly got up and walked into the lair with Chase. He knew nothing was ever going to happen and that he'd have to avoid it, but a man could dream.

Jack sat down in his usual spot at the end of the table when it came to drawing lessons. During meals, whether Chase was there or not, he would sit on the opposite end of the table, but in the seat next to the head spot. That was Chase's seat when he ate. Jack never touched that chair, fearing that there was a spell or something that would hurt him or anyone that wasn't Chase if they tried sitting there.

Chase entered the room with the basket that held all of the drawing supplies and was a slightly stunned for a second to see Jack sitting with correct posture. Usually Jack would be getting distracted by the simplest of things or just too energetic to sit and it would take a good glare from Chase to get the younger man to calm down. Maybe Jack could be properly trained, he would just have to be extremely patient with him. Chase was very good at being patient with his plus fifteen hundred years teaching him that, but Jack was one of the only people that he's ever met that has truly tested that mastered skill.

"We're going to work on shadowing today." Chase stated as he laid out the supplies. Jack was going to question why he was only given a normal pencil and decided it was best to just let the warlord explain. "We'll start with something simple." Chase stood next to Jack and drew a cube, his lines soft and swift. "Where do you want the sun?"

"The sun?"

"I know that you spend most of your days indoors, given the lack of pigment in your skin-"

"I'm albino-"

"-but surely you know what the sun is."

"Of course I know what the sun is, I'm not stupid." Jack huffed. "I was asking what you meant my where I want the sun to be."

"The sun, a lamp, any light source. You need to know where the light is coming from so you know which way the shadow will be cast." Chase explained, not bothering to insult the younger man by using his 'I'm not stupid' comment.

"Oh." Jack pointed to the right side of the paper. "Let's put the sun here."

"Alright, simple enough." Chase lightly drew a small circle where Jack's finger had been a moment ago. "The closer the light source, the larger the shadow and the further, the smaller." Chase said as he started to color a square-like shape on the cube's right side. "But you don't need to worry yourself about that now, we'll work on that later." Chase shaded inside of the cube, the marking getting lighter towards his 'sun', giving it somewhat of a 3-D form.

"That's so cool." Jack said in awe as he watched.

"Indeed." Chase said, a hint of laughter in his voice. He finished up his example before going over to his usual seat next to Jack. Chase has gotten use to the habit of this spot whenever he taught Jack a drawing lesson. Their lessons for the past few days had been Chase forcing Jack to practice his blending, shading and drawing a solid outline. While Jack worked on his own cubes, Chase's mind began to wander.

Chase had noticed how the other man made sure that there was absolutely no physical contact between them. The warlord didn't mind, of course, but he had to admit that it was strange. Just a moment ago he saw that Jack was leaning as far away as he could in his chair. It was quite different than the first time Chase had ended up getting somewhat close to Jack while showing the young genius what to do for their lesson. Jack hadn't moved towards him, but he didn't move away either, he just sat there and accepted the lack of space between them. Why would Jack suddenly want to take the effort to move away? Did Chase smell bad? Did he have foul breath? He breathed into his hand and sniffed, only smelling the berry flavored tea he had drank earlier this morning.

The warlord stiffened in his seat when he realized what he was doing and thinking. Why did he care about his breath? For starters, he was very well-hygienic and Jack's opinion of him didn't matter. He was just some mortal. A mortal who irritates him, makes him question his sanity, tests his patience and is usually more of an annoyance than an ally. Yet, he was just a mortal who he allows to live in his home. To eat his food. Sleep in one of his spare beds. Use his washroom and bathroom. If he was just some mortal, why would he allow him such luxuries?

Metallic microlattice.

That was it. That was the only reason Jack Spicer was allowed to live here. The only reason he was tolerating his presence at the moment. These 'drawing lessons' were nothing more than a way to prevent Jack from over working himself and ruining the microlattice, preventing his warriors from getting the best armor they could have. Keeping his warriors safe was the one and only reason Jack Spicer was alive right now.

Right?


	8. Teasing

Jack stood outside of the entrance to his lab, staring into it and trying to build up the courage to go in. He needed to go back in there. He needed to fix his equipment. He needed to refill his containers of supplies and he needed to work on the metallic microlattice. Why was he so scared to go into _his_ lab? His place. His own area that he can do whatever he wanted. Nothing serious had actually happened the last time he was there, they were just standing close to each other and he's been near the other man multiple times before with no problem. He should have absolutely no trouble going back to his lab and getting back to work. He can handle this. He is a full grown man...kind of.

"Having some difficulties, Spicer?"

"Shit!" Jack cursed and flailed in shock. "I thought I was finally used to you doing that, but apparently not!" He shouted as he patted his chest, trying to calm his racing heart.

"Used to me doing what?" Chase asked.

"Appearing out of nowhere, man! One second I'm all alone and the next, bam!" Jack clapped his hands. "There's you, right next to me with no warning."

"I walked over here like any other normal human would." Chase stated.

"Well, you're not like any other normal human." Jack said under his breath.

"I guess you've got a point." Jack stiffened, realizing that Chase had heard him. "And neither are you." Chase added with a straight face.

"I am kind of a genius." Jack puffed out his chest.

"The more you say that, the less I believe it." Chase lightly smirked when he saw Jack physically deflate.

"Don't insult me." Jack muttered as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of gum.

"I would never dream of insulting you, Spicer. It goes against my nature."

"Hah. Hah. You're hilarious." Jack popped a piece of gum into his mouth.

"What are you chewing?" Chase asked.

"I know that you spend your days sheltered, given your lack of pop culture knowledge, but surely you know what gum is." Jack said, struggling to keep a straight face.

"Are you mocking me?"

"I would never dream of mocking you, Chase. It goes against my nature." Jack walked into his lab as he spoke, using his arms to make over-exaggerated gestures.

"You are mocking me." Chase growled and sprinted over to Jack.

"Oh no." Jack flinched when he saw Chase rushing towards him, preparing himself to get slapped or punched or worse. He was shocked when instead of hitting him, Chase wrapped his arms around him. Jack let out a very girly shriek as he was lifted up and tossed into an empty trash bin. "Did you just..."

"I'm only doing my job, Spicer. Putting the garbage in the bin." Chase grinned at his own joke.

"You son-of-a-bitch." Jack said as he attempted to get out of the bin, but ended up toppling over. Jack muttered soft curses as he got up and patted himself off, looking up when he noticed that Chase was laughing. Actually laughing. Not some small chuckle or a huff of amusement, a real laugh. The younger man couldn't prevent himself from smiling at the sight of the warlord looking happy as he laughed.

"I probably laughed at that a lot more than I should have." Chase admitted when he finally calmed down. "I haven't laughed like that in a while and over what? Some silly wordplay and some physical comedy. I thought I outgrew that. I haven't done that since..." Chase paused for a second, making Jack worry that something was wrong. "Since drinking the Lao Mang Soup." The two men stood there in silence for a while, neither of them moving.

"Chase, I-"

"I've noticed that you've done absolutely nothing with your lab since the last time that I was here." Chase stated, sounding as if he was only speaking to prevent himself from thinking. "I know how much to despise cleaning, so let's finish this up now so that you can fix your equipment and work on the microlattice."

"Um...yeah. Sure." Jack picked up the bin he was in and sat it upright, it being one of the only two empty ones left.

"Depending on how long it takes up to finish, we will either take the bins to the dump that you had mentioned late tonight or early tomorrow morning."

"Okay. Are we going to have any of your warriors helping us or are we going to make two trips?" Jack asked.

"How far away is the dump?"

"About five miles."

"We can make two trips. I'm assuming that you're going to use that flying device of yours to help you carry the bins?"

"Of course. I wouldn't be the evil boy genius I claim to be without it." Jack chuckled, giving Chase a large smile.

"Where did you even get that device or did you make that one as well?"

"My grandma gave it to me when I was a lot younger." Jack slipped off his heli-pack to get a better look at it. "It's what made me want to make my own inventions, actually."

"I see. Where is your grandmother, you've never mentioned her before."

"She's dead." Jack stated, his smile fading away.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Chase looked down and held his hands behind his back.

"Don't be. She passed a couple weeks after giving me the heli-pack, I'm over it."

"Are you really?"

"Maybe. I mean, I've modified this pack, added updates and fixed it whenever one of the monks would dent it or scratch it, but I've never removed this little marking." Jack turned the back around and there was a beautifully written 'J.S.' on it. "My initials." Jack explained. "Grandma wanted me to never loose this heli-pack or have someone take it from me. She'd made sure that only I used it and for whatever means I wanted. Although, I know how she wanted me to. She was a pretty wicked woman herself." Jack's smile returned.

"Is she what made you turn to evil?" Chase asked.

"No. A lot of things happened to me that made me turn to evil, but she showed me that being evil doesn't mean you have to be a completely heartless bastard, that you can enjoy life and other simple things while stealing what you wanted." Jack put his pack back on. "She showed me that you can still love while you hated so many others."

"You're grandmother sounded like a very wise woman."

"She was and she made a killer quiche whenever she wasn't robbing a bank."

"Was it really that good?" Chase asked with some humor in his voice.

"Hell yeah it was! She taught me the recipe and I can almost make it as good as she did."

"Perhaps we can have that for dinner tonight, I'm now a little curious about this 'killer quiche'."

"The quiche takes like an entire day to make, man. She'd only make it for special occasions because of how much time and effort she'd put into it."

"Then you can do that tomorrow and while it bakes we can work on your drawing lessons some more."

"I'm okay with that."

"Now, if we don't get cleaning, you're going to have to get up very early tomorrow to take the bins to the dump." Chase warned.

"I'm not okay with that." Jack quickly started going through the rest of the scraps on the counters.


	9. Cooking

Chase sat at the small table in his kitchen, watching Jack as the younger man cooked. Jack hummed a unique tone as he chopped up a green pepper. Taking out the seeded core and tossing it into a tiny bin that was used for compost. Two of Chase's warriors, Raja and Niso, were laying down next to Jack, waiting for him to drop some scraps of food. Chase would normally scold his warriors for that kind of behavior, but seemed to enjoy feeding the felines 'accidentally' every now and then. He knew that an upset chef would never cook as well as one that was happy.

The warlord saw Jack drop two pieces of pepper, not even trying to pretend that he didn't do it on purpose anymore. Raja and Niso each took a piece and made strange faces as they chewed, never having green pepper raw before and the texture feeling weird on their rough tongues. Most of Chase's warriors still didn't like Jack and refused to even be in the same area as the young genius, but Raja and Niso were getting attached to him and Nani would occasionally peek her head in to see what Jack was up to.

"You can help me out if you want to." Jack offered, seeing that Chase's position was now him leaning his face against a fist, looking as if the life was being bored out of him.

"Help you how? I don't know the recipe and I'm not listening to you whine and complain about how I ruined everything since I still need you alive and well at the moment."

"Here." Jack placed an onion out on the counter. "You can cut this up."

"How does it need to be done?" Chase asked as he got up, not showing the relief of being released from his boredom. Usually he'd meditate if he had nothing planned to do, but he didn't trust Jack alone in his kitchen unsupervised and besides Raja, Niso and maybe Nani, his warriors would have no problem with Jack horrendously harming himself.

"As tiny as possible, you don't even need to worry about the shape." Jack answered, grabbing a knife for Chase and wiping it off with a towel before handing it to him.

"Easy enough." Chase was about to cut the onion in half when Jack's hand went over his own, making him stop. "What?" The warlord asked after Jack stood there for a second, acting as if he's been paralyzed or something.

"L-Let me help you." Jack stuttered, moving his hand away from Chase's and taking the onion. "It'll be a lot easier if you did this first." Jack used his knife to cut off the ends of the onion and removed several paper-like layers. "There." Jack said as he sat the onion back in front of Chase. "Hack away."

Jack watched Chase for a moment to make sure that he was going to be able to handle the onion and when he saw Chase chopping the onion into several sections, he started peeling a carrot. The two worked in silence until Chase let out a loud growl and dropped his knife, rubbing his eyes with both hands.

"What is this sorcery!?" Chase yelled. "Why are my eyes burning and watering up!?"

"Have you never chopped an onion before?" Jack asked.

"My warriors cook for me and the last time I had cooked was over a thousand years ago." Chase finally stopped rubbing his eyes and saw that Jack was grinning at him.

"Chase Young, _The_ Chase Young, immortal warlord and bogeyman to the monks, was defeated by a mere vegetable." Jack started laughing.

"I will throw you in the bin again." Chase warned.

"We got rid of those last night." Jack reminded.

"I will drag you to them."

"For five miles?"

"I've dragged larger and heavier people much farther to prove a point, Spicer."

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry, okay?" Jack held his hands up in surrender. Chase nodded his head, showing that he accepted Jack's apology. "Now, we have to options." The young man put up two fingers, lowering the middle one as he spoke. "We can either switch jobs and have you take care of the carrots or-" Jack put the middle finger back up with the first one. "-I can five you some gum."

"Gum? Why would giving me gum prevent this cursed onion from burning my eyes?" Chase asked.

"It's supposed to help you." Jack stated.

"How?"

"I don't know." Jack admitted with a shrug. "I never bothered with looking up the science to it, but it just does."

"Fine, let's try it out." Chase waited as Jack pulled out a piece of gum and handed it to him.

"Watermelon." Jack said as Chase unwrapped the gum. "It's watermelon flavored." He explained when Chase gave him an odd look. Chase let out a hum of understanding before putting the gum piece in his mouth and started chewing.

"Now what?"

"Chomp and chop." Jack said with a little laugh, obviously amused by his comment. Chase grabbed his knife and went back to chopping the onion, a small hint of shock in his face when his eyes didn't burn enough to cause tears, but was still a mild annoyance. Jack continued working on the carrots for a few moments before speaking again. "Hey, Chase?"

"Yes?"

"What is, well, was, you're family like?" Jack stopped when he saw that Chase had. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to pry into your personal life or anything, I was just curious and-"

"Enough." Chase interrupted Jack's rambling and sighed. "I did ask you questions about your grandmother last night, you do have a right to ask about my family as well." Chase chopped as he spoke, halfway done with the onion. "I was raised by monks, as you already know, so I didn't really bond with my parents as well." Jack watched Chase as he spoke, a hint of something in the older man's voice that he couldn't place. "Unlike you, though, it was my grandfather who visited me every now and then. He liked seeing his grandson growing up well disciplined and having high self control of himself at a young age. He died when I was eleven. He wasn't 'wicked' like your grandmother, but he was strict. While he may have been very strict most of the time, having a zero-tolerance of misbehavior, he did know when to have some fun and understood that I was a child who needed to have some play time or he'd risk some form of mental breakdown when I was fully grown." Chase swept aside the onion pieces as he finished another chunk of onion, a small portion left now. "If only he could see me now." Chase chuckled weakly.

"He'd be proud." Jack said softly, not believing that Chase would hear him.

"Maybe." Jack gave himself a mental note to no longer talk under his breath around Chase. The warlord's hearing a lot better than what he expected. "I also had a brother, but I will not go into detail about him." Chase put the knife down, done with the onion. "Is there anything else left to do?"

"No, I just have to put it all together and toss it in the oven." Jack answered.

"How long will it take to bake?"

"Two and a half hours."

"Why so long?"

"There's a lot of quiche to bake and it's done at a low temperature."

"I'll gather our drawing supplies and you can work on your shadowing while we wait. We'll work in here so you can be close to the oven." Chase stated and walked out of the room without another word.

"Holy shit." Jack said, suddenly out of breath. Chase just shared a huge portion of his life to him, _him_ , as if it was nothing at all. Jack now had knowledge that barely anyone on the planet knew about Chase and there was no death threat to make sure he never told anyone about it. Did Chase actually trust him enough with this information to not tell him that his life would end in slow and painful ways if he ever spoke of it? Jack felt his face heat up. Chase Young didn't trust anyone with anything and yet here he was with a personal story about Chase's grandfather. Was Chase finally starting to like him? Even if it was just a little bit, that was something.

Jack flailed when he heard the pencils clinking against each other, saying that Chase was coming back. The young genius quickly started putting the ingredients together so Chase wouldn't ask him why he was just standing there. He honestly didn't know if he could come up with a believable lie with how fast his heart and mind were racing because of his thoughts.


	10. Dancing

Jack muttered to himself as he struggled to unplug a wire inside of his tool-bot. The wire ended up getting glued to its latch because some grease leaked into it and dried up. Jack let out a groan, reaching for a screwdriver that was at a distance where his fingertips barely brushed the tool. He let out a sigh and gave in, dropping the wires and cords in his arms before walked over to the screwdriver. He could not wait till his tool-bot was fixed.

The young genius saw that Chase was sweeping up some glass and metal pieces that they had missed after finally getting all of the machines out of the lab and not wishing to sweep for the fifth time that night. Jack assumed that Chase was only doing that so he could do something besides watch him. Chase would usually meditate if nothing was happening, but he didn't seem to want to leave him alone. Apparently Jack could be trusted with knowledge of the warlord's past, but he can't handle being in his own lab without supervision.

Jack soon grew tired of the silence and went over to a set of speakers that were hanging on the wall that he had smoothed out with a very powerful cutting tool that was currently laying on a counter, the wires inside of it singed and needing replaced. The speakers were a little burnt on the sides and their screens were a little damaged, but they worked and would make due till Jack bought new ones. The young man took out his phone and pressed several buttons before turning up a knob that was on a panel between the two speakers. A pop song played loudly, the bass thumping so hard that Jack could feel it in his chest.

"Spicer!" Chase snapped, not appreciating the sudden change in atmosphere. Jack didn't seem to hear him as he started swaying to the music while he continued to work. Chase let out a groan and looked down, realizing that he was tapping his foot to the beat of the song. He quickly stopped himself, thinking that he had a lot more self-control than that and Jack's swaying and the music was not going to take that away from him. "Spicer!" Chase repeated louder, walking over to the younger man. "Spicer!" Chase put a hand on Jack's shoulder and turned him around. He saw that Jack hesitated for a moment, as if recovering from something, before speaking.

"I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you over my jams!" Jack said with a laugh. Chase growled in annoyance and went over to the speakers himself, pressing the red button on the center panel, assuming it was the power source. The warlord let out a breath of relief when the music stopped and he could finally hear himself think again.

"Have some fun for once." Jack huffed and joined Chase at the speakers, turning the speakers back on. Chase quickly pressed the button again and Jack did as well. The two went back and forth several times before Chase grabbed Jack's wrist and spun him around, pinning the younger man's arm to his own back. Jack's throat closed up a little bit as he could feel his face warming up and turning a light shade of pink. He swallowed and reached out with his free arm, pressing the button one more time. Chase grunted and released Jack, no longer wanting to deal with this and knowing that if he smashed the music maker, he'd have to deal with a whining Jack and he really didn't want to deal with that either.

"You are such a child." Chase said between his teeth.

"Come on, Chase, live a little." Jack chuckled. "It's just some music."

"That insult to the ears is not music. It's just instruments being pounded together while someone is either complaining about their lives or bragging about a sexual encounter of some sort." Chase stated.

"That's why you don't listen, you feel." Jack started swaying again. "You just move and let the music take control."

"Absolutely not. I will not allow some horrendous sound control me." Chase crossed his arms, showing that he was not planning on changing his opinion at all.

"Buzz-kill." Jack muttered before his entire body perked up, coming up with an idea. "I hope they still work." The young genius ran over to several bots that had small bodies and long, thin, limbs. Jack flicked a switched on each machine and stepped back, laughing and clapping with joy when they buzzed to life and started dancing.

"You have got to be kidding me." Chase groaned. "What are those!?" He asked, raising his voice so he was heard over the music and seeing that Jack was now dancing with the robots.

"They're my dance-bots." Jack stated. "No one likes to party alone." Chase sighed and uncrossed his arms, putting them on his hips while he watched Jack do some very odd 'moves'. At one point Jack pinched his nose and wiggled his whole body as he bent at the knees. He then made fists and spun them around in a circle in front of his chest that moved away from him.

"You look ridiculous." Chase informed. "What are you even doing?"

"What? You've never heard of the swim?" Jack asked, repeating the first move. "Or the cabbage patch?" He redid the second move.

"What does an aquatic activity and a field of vegetables have to do with what you seem to insist on calling dancing?"

"They're just moves that everyone knows and can do. Try it!" Jack said with a large smile.

"I will not submit myself to voluntary suffering and torturous humiliation."

"Don't be such a party-pooper."

"I don't even want to know what that slang means." Chase huffed and rolled his eyes.

"Do you at least know what a side touch is?" Jack asked. Chase raised a brow and patted his side, gesturing that he believed it was what Jack meant. "No. Not even close, although I probably should have called it a side-step, since it's a lot more clearer what the move is." Chase just stared at Jack. "Let me show you." Jack stepped one foot to the side and had the other one join it, then he repeated the move to the opposite side. "See, easy. You can do it."

"I'm not doing that."

"Please." Jack pouted his lip out to the extreme and held his hands together. "I promise to never bother you about dancing ever again and I'll turn the music down."

"Or I could just smash the machine and break your legs."

"Please! Please! Please!" Jack begged.

"Alright, just stop that." Chase sighed. "Like this?" He asked, as he copied the same steps Jack had made. The younger man let out an excited laugh and started to side touch with Chase.

Chase was about to stop, feeling as if he's done more than enough to satisfy whatever Jack had wanted, when he saw that Jack was getting into the music. The younger man's whole body moved with him and soon his dance changed to several versions of the 'side-step' and looked like he was having a lot of fun. Chase took in a deep breath and decided to try what Jack had mentioned, to not listen to the music, but to just feel it. Chase finally let go a little and actually danced with the younger man. He saw that Jack was now moving his arms as well, pumping his chest out every time one arm went up and he stepped with the opposite leg. Chase mimicked the move and ended up getting very close to the other man as they danced.

Jack yelped and Chase grunted when there was suddenly a loud pop and the music stopped playing, snapping both men back to reality. Jack let out a loud groan and ran over to the speakers, small clouds of smoke came out of the now fully ripped screens. Chase found that he was breathing heavily and could feel his heart beating fast, he was only dancing, there was no extreme movements. Why was he so exhausted?

"It's dead!" Jack yelled and slapped the speaker, letting out a gasp of pain when he burnt his hand. "Shit!"

"For a self-proclaimed genius, that wasn't a very smart idea."

"Shut up! I know!" Jack snapped and held his hand. "That really hurt." He whined, sounding as if he was going to cry.

"Let's get you back to lair, put some cream on your burn and wrapped it up before you start crying and annoying me more than you usually do."

"Okay. " Jack said softly and followed Chase out of the lab.

Jack waited for Chase to threaten him to not tell anyone about the dancing, but it never happened as they walked all the way back up to the lair. It didn't happen as a burn cream was put on his hand nor when his hand was wrapped up in a bandage. They worked on some more drawing lessons, they ate dinner and then separated for bed. Jack was never threatened. There was never a hint of a glare or anything from Chase for the rest of the day.

The genius sat in his bed and lightly traced a finger along the bandage on his hand, his body still burning from Chase holding it to apply the cream and wrap the bandage. He was having a very, very hard time shoving the feelings he had down and make them go away. It didn't help that he was with Chase every day for hours on end and if he tried to avoid the older man, he'd be question and lying to Chase was almost impossible to accomplished since the warlord was basically a human lie-detector. It also didn't help that he was unconsciously having them do things that got them close together. Dancing? Really? Why did he believe for even a second that that was a good idea? He was sabotaging himself without even realizing it.

Jack plopped back down on the bed in one of the many spare rooms Chase had in his lair. Why did Chase have so many bedrooms when he never had people over? He just sighed and brushed that thought aside, not really needing to overthink that as well and risk losing even more sleep. Jack curled up under the blankets and tried his best to shut off his brain, willing himself to sleep and knowing that he needed to find a way to make his feelings for Chase go away before it was too late and he got himself hurt.


	11. Deciding

"Yes!" Jack let out a celebratory wail as his tool-bot floated in front of him. The bot took the screwdriver in Jack's hand and placed it in one of the many slots inside of it. "I fixed it! Finally!"

"I'm surprised it took you this long." Chase said from the wall he was leaning against.

"He got the worst of it since he was right next to it when it exploded. All the other machines I could easily get done by dinner, no problem." Jack said with high excitement, watching the robot fly around the room and gather all of his tools. "Speaking of food, I'm gonna get me a snack before continuing." The young genius went over to a fridge that sat at the very end of his lab. He pulled out two pudding cups and grabbed two plastic spoons from a box that sat next to the fridge. Chase let out a questioning hum when Jack walked back over to him and held one of the puddings and spoons towards him. "It's pudding, I figured I offer you some while I was getting myself some." Jack explained. Chase stared at the offering for a while. "Come on, it's not gonna kill you."

"Fine." Chase took the pudding and spoon, hearing the table that he was next to squeak a little as Jack hopped on top of it.

"I usually don't share my pudding cups, but I was raised to have at least some manners." Jack stated, peeling off the plastic covering and licking off the pudding that had stuck to it. Chase removed the covering as well but didn't lick it like Jack did and sat it down on the small area of table that was between him and Jack.

"What kind is this?" Chase asked, giving the treat a sniff.

"Banana, my favorite." Jack answered, putting a large spoonful of pudding into his mouth. Chase scooped out a small amount of the pudding out and gave it an experimental taste.

"Not bad." Chase admitted, eating another small spoonful. "I just realized something, Spicer." He said a moment later.

"What?" Jack asked.

"The other day, I explained my entire family, parents, grandparents, sibling and I only got information about your grandmother." Chase stated.

"Yeah, and?"

"It doesn't seem fair that you know more about my family than I do of yours and I do not like the fact you know more about me than I do of you, it gives you an advantage." Jack was going to ask what kind of an advantage he could possibly have by knowing that Chase was close to his grandfather, didn't really know his parents and had a brother he doesn't want to talk about? It's not like he had anyone to blab to and no one would probably be asking him anytime soon about Chase's family. But he just shrugged and spoke.

"I can tell you more about my family if you want, there's not much else to tell, though." Jack said.

"Go ahead, I will not allow up to be on unequal grounds with information."

"Alright. It's pretty obvious that me and my parents aren't close and I won't go into detail about that like you wouldn't about your brother. My grandfather died before I was even conceived. I don't have any siblings, but I do have a cousin that I was close to."

"Was?"

"She died, cancer." Jack had finished his pudding and was now holding the empty cup in his hand. "She was diagnosed with it when she was ten, the doctors said she would have only lived six months, but it made it for six years. She lost her hair at eleven and refused to wear wigs, but she'd always wear headbands with large bows or really fancy hats, her accessories were almost as loud as she was." Jack laughed.

"What was her name?"

"Jacklyn or Jackie." Jack noticed the look Chase was giving him. "Me and Jackie were born on the same day and our parents were really good friends back then and decided to name their children the same, to a degree. So, me and Jackie were 'Jack-attack' whenever we were together, which was very often until she...yeah. Worst thing is she died on her birthday." Chase noticed that Jack's voice had cracked. "Our birthday is April first, can you believe it? Isn't that just fucking ironic, like April fools, your best friend died on her sweet sixteen." Jack was now crying as she spoke. "I thought it was a joke when they first told me. I thought they were just being mean and trying to get me to cry or something, but when..." Jack wiped an eye with the back of his hand, smearing his eyeliner a little. "When I saw her later that day, I knew she was gone. They took off her hat, they cleaned her face off all her makeup and she wasn't smiling anymore. Jack-attack died when she did."

Chase just stood there while Jack cried, not really knowing what to do for once. He saw Raja, Niso and Nani come into the lab a moment later, ears perking up when they heard Jack sobbing. The three felines went over to the young man, Nani and Niso sitting at his feet while Raja jumped on top of the table with Jack. Niso and Nani rubbed their faces against Jack's legs while Raja put his head in Jack's lap, letting out a loud purr in attempt to calm him. Chase was slightly shocked by what was happening, he's never seen his warriors act this way towards any human. Ever. Jack smiled when he saw the warriors and petted Raja's head, thanking the panther as he already stopped crying. Chase raised his brows, was that really all it took to make Jack stop his crying? Usually, it'd take ten death threats and actually tossing the boy across the room to convince him to stop his wailing.

The warlord gave himself a mental note for the next time Jack starts one of his crying sprees to just summon those three warriors. They seem to have finally accepted Jack and Jack was very close to the warriors as well. Raja, Niso, and Nani were very well at taking care of the home, they did the cleaning and the cooking most of the time. Of course, they'd go out on hunting trips when ordered, but maybe Chase would assign then to stay in the lair at all times. Jack could easily just use them whenever Chase did not feel like dealing with the younger man. The three, along with another warrior were given the task of hunting for tonight's meal. Chase decided that after tonight, he would designate them as Jack's babysitters and caretakers until he was out of his lair. Raja would probably be the one doing the most work since Jack seemed most attached to the panther that had supposedly tried to eat him almost two weeks ago.

Two weeks? Has it really been two weeks since that day? And those drawing lessons started about two weeks before that. Has it really been a whole month of just him and Jack? How was that possible? How have they been together almost every single day for the whole day for a whole month and Jack hadn't irritated him to the point of homicide? Were those drawing lessons really helping the younger man behave better? Jack didn't seem any different, personality wise. Sure, he was a little calmer with his over-idolization of the warlord, but he obviously still admired him immensely and would slip back into old habits very often and had to be glared at the calm down. But, other than that, they were almost friendly towards each other.

Chase looked at the pudding cup in his hand, now empty from him eating while in thought. Him and Jack, friends? Chase shook his head and tossed the cup onto the table. Never. They could never be friends or anything else. He was just a mortal and a naive child, he'd eventually leave him like everyone else does. Jack would soon grow tired of him and move on with his life when he realizes how much of his life we wasted with the warlord, like everyone else he's ever allowed any form of attachment had. He'd grow out of his immaturity and abandon him. Just like everyone else.


	12. Confusing

Jack walked into the dinning room, his machines finished a good hour before he had thought they would take. He saw the basket of the drawing supplies sitting on the table, Jack assumed Case planned on him getting done early and do a lesson while they waited for the warriors to make dinner or they were going to have one after the meal. The first option was most likely since Chase usually liked to wind down and prepare for bed after dinner. The young genius thought that Chase went to bed at a very early time but soon learned that he got up between five and six a.m. every morning, so going to bed at about nine seemed pretty appropriate. Jack went to bed when he fell asleep and didn't completely wake up until he felt like getting out of bed, which was usually close to noon.

The young man grabbed some paper and a pencil from the basket and sat down in his spot and started working on some shadowing. He was starting to get a little better with it, but his shadows always ended up looking weird since he couldn't seem to get the shadow's shape correct.

"Working on some shadowing?"

"Again!? Are you serious!?" Jack snapped after flailing at the sudden voice.

"I see that you're still not used to be supposedly 'appearing out of nowhere'. Chase stated, some laughter in his voice.

"You're an asshole." Jack muttered.

"So you say, Spicer."Jack felt Chase's hand hold on to the back of his chair, saw the other one rest on the table and Chase's head was right next to him a moment later as he bent forward. "Angle your shadow some more."

"Wh-what?" Jack asked, his voice coming out as a soft squeak and his mind telling him over and over again to calm down.

"From where you've placed your sun, the angle of your shadow needs to be more towards you. That's why it looks off." Chase explained.

"So, like this?" Jack lightly sketched the outline of a new shadow.

"Precisely and also, shadows don't really have a solid edge, they're a little..." Chase tried to think of a word that would make sense to Jack. "Fuzzy."

"Oh." Jack held out the word, showing an understanding.

"You can work on that after mastering this part of shadowing." Chase stated. Jack was about to say something when there was suddenly a loud wail.

"Was that one of your-" Chase took off before Jack could finish. Jack ran towards the exit of the lair as well, almost running into the warlord when he stopped.

"Stay here." Chase ordered.

"But-"

"No protests. You are to stay right here. I can not risk having you get in the way." Chase left, not allowing Jack to say anything and another pain-filled wail soon followed.

Jack stood at the lair's opening for a while, wanting to see what was happening as roars and screams filled the air. He contemplated disobeying Chase's order but knew that the consequence would be very painful whether it'd be physical or emotional and he really did not want that at the moment.

Eventually, Jack's legs grew tied and he sat down on the ground. fiddling with his fingers as he waited. It had been a while since the sounds had stopped, leaving him in silence and making him wonder how much longer it would be till Chase was back. Jack knew the warlord was fine, but he couldn't help himself from worrying about the closet thing he's had to a friend in a very long time.

"Chase!" Jack scrambled to his feet when Chase walked in. "Shit man! Are you okay!?" He asked after seeing blood on Chase's face and some of it seeping down his arm.

"It's not all mine." Chase said, a battered looking warrior following him soon after.

"You were shot!?" Jack yelled when Chase dropped a broken gun to the floor.

"I am quite aware of that, Spicer. I can still feel the bullet inside of me." Chase said through gritted teeth. "Get some tweezers or something to get this damned thing out of me." Jack didn't need to be told twice before running to a nearby bathroom and grabbing some tweezers and returning to the lair entrance. He found Chase sitting on the ground, the warrior laying down next to him, its breathing slow in sleep. "Get it out for me. They shot me from behind."

"What happened?" Jack asked as he knelt down behind Chase and started searching for the bullet wound. Soon finding it right next to the armor's shoulder piece.

"My warriors were outnumbered by a pack of bears and when I went down to assist, we were ambushed by a group of poachers." Chase let out a hiss of pain when the bullet was removed. Jack was shocked to see that the bullet was barely an inch into the warlord's flesh and the bleeding was already slowing down. What was the point of wearing so much armor when his skin was so strong and durable? "I had just knocked out one of the last poachers when his little 'friend'-" Chase spat out the word. "-shot me." He let out a grunt and punched his leg. "What a coward! Using that type of weapon on an unarmed opponent and not even having the guts to use it to my face!" Jack started cleaning off the blood with a wet rag one of the warriors had given him a moment ago, some tape and a bandage sat next to him as well. "Of course, he had to hit me in one of the areas my armor doesn't cover. My skin my be stronger than the average human and I can't die, but getting shot is still a giant pain!" Jack got some amusement from Chase complaining, something that the warlord hardly ever does or at least doesn't let anyone see.

"Sorry!" Jack flinched back when Chase gasped.

"You're just patting my clothing into the wound." Chase grunted. Jack stiffened when Chase started to remove his armor. Heat traveling up to his face when Chase also slipped off his shirt, exposing his bare back to him. "Spicer?"

"Sorry, sorry, there's just a lot of blood." Jack lied.

"This is going to be such a nuisance." Chase sighed.

"Y-Yeah." Jack agreed, taping on the bandage after wiping the rest of the blood off.

"You've earned some gratitude from me , Spicer. Usually, I'd patch myself up or use one of my warriors, but since I was hit from behind and I was not in the mood to transform them..." Chase's sentence trailed off when he noticed that Jack was staring at him. "Is there still some blood on me?"

"Um...I...uh..." Jack stopped when he realized something. "Didn't you send out four warriors?"

"Yes, why do you-" Chase's eyes went wide. Was that fear?

"Chase? Chase!" Jack called after the older man after he took off again, leaving his armor and shirt behind.

Jack was, once again, left alone at the opening of the lair. Left to think. He really should not have froze up like that when he saw Chase shirtless. There was nothing special about Chase's exposed torso. It was just large and tan and firm-looking and muscular. Jack shook his head, those were defiantly not appropriate thoughts to have. He's going to end up getting himself killed if he kept allowing stuff like that to happen. And if he wasn't killed, he was at least going to get hurt to the point of no return. Maybe he could try to get away from the warlord for a few days, just enough time for him to calm down and get over this weird crush of his. He could fake an illness or lie about a family death. But Jack really didn't want to go back home, it was always so empty and lifeless in there. Perhaps he could crash at a hotel for a while, but those expenses would be difficult to explain when his parents got the credit card bill at the end of the month.

Jack snapped out of his thoughts when Chase finally got back, carrying a warrior in his arms. Was that...

"Raja?" Jack asked, his voice cracking. Chase didn't respond and knelt down, laying the fallen warrior in front of Jack. Several bullet wounds soaked with blood covered the panther's neck. "They...They..."

"They killed him." Chase finished for Jack. Nani and Niso curled up next to Raja's body, mourning for their lost friend and partner. "They took away Nani's brother and Niso's mate." Chase clenched his hands into fists. "They will suffer greatly for this. By my own hands. I guarantee it." Chase let out a breath when Jack started crying, there was no Raja to stop him and Nani and Niso were to upset to try either. "Help yourself to whatever you can find in the kitchen. I'll be in my chambers if you need me." Chase stated as he got up and left, only hearing sobs in response.

Hours past when Chase returned to the room again, ready to perform Raja's burial with the rest of his warriors and found that Jack was still there. He must have just fallen asleep since his face was still wet with fresh tears. The young man's eyeliner was now smudged and ruined at this point, most of it gone and on his hands in an attempt to keep his face dry, but failing nonetheless. Jack's head was using Niso's side as a pillow and one hand was resting on Raja while Nani was curled up to his stomach, keeping the boy warm with her body. Nani raised her head and let out a warning growl when Chase crouched down next to Jack. She blinked and put her head back down after realizing that it was her master.

"Don't get too attached to him, Nani. He'll most likely end up leaving. Just like all the others do." Chase stated as he scooped Jack up, knowing that the young genius would complain about being sore if he was left on the floor to sleep.

Chase carried Jack to the bedroom he currently occupied and placed him down on the bed. The warlord grabbed a tissue from the box sitting on the bedside table, slipping off the young man's goggles before cleaning off the tears and eyeliner from his face. Chase assumed that sleeping with that kind of makeup would not be pleasant to wake up to, especially with it running and being rubbed everywhere. He told himself that he was only doing this to prevent whining from Jack and the less of that annoying sound there was, the better.

Jack looked a lot different without his makeup. He looked pure and clean and even innocent. Like a child. Chase knew that Jack wasn't technically a child, but he sometimes had childish habits. The warlord couldn't really blame Jack for holding on to the youth that was leaving him each and every day that past. Chase knew that he wasn't childish and that he tended to go for more of the serious side of things, but he couldn't prevent himself from noticing that Jack had brought out some childish moment from him. Like the silly banter they've had for the past few weeks and when they had danced the other day. How long has it been since he danced for no reason? Chase brushed some of Jack's hair from his eyes. Maybe after the metallic microlattice armor was complete, he'd allow Jack to stay for as long as he pleased. But was he really willing to allow some attachment to the other man, only to have him leave much too soon?

"Ch-Chase?" Jack groaned. Chase froze up and watched as Jack closed his eyes again. He used that moment to dart out of the room as fast as he could, standing outside of the door when he heard Jack mutter "Must've been a dream."


	13. Leaning

Jack let out a loud yawn as he entered the kitchen, shocked to find it empty. Usually by the time Jack was waking up, several warriors would be cooking lunch for Chase. Maybe Chase had it earlier today or would be having it later. The young man brewed some coffee and made himself a bowl of chocolate flavored cereal. It wasn't until Nani and Niso came into the room as well that he remembered what had happened.

"Raja." Jack put the bowl down, his appetite now gone. He slowly slumped down to the ground, not even trying to hold back this time as he cried. Three times in two days. New record.

"Crying again, Spicer?" Chase asked as he went over to the sink. Jack only sniffed in response and patted Niso's head while Nani laid across his lap. He looked over when he heard the sink running and saw that Chase wasn't in his armor and his hair was a little frizzy from not yet being brushed.

"Did you just get up?" Jack asked.

"I'm pretty sure that you, out of all people, have no room to question when someone gets up." Chase stated, taking a drink from his cup. The warlord glanced over at Jack and saw that his eyeliner was reapplied, but had already started running again. That had to be a tedious thing to take care of on a daily basis.

"True. I'm just used to coming into the kitchen and finding some of your warriors making you lunch while I eat some breakfast." Jack admitted.

"Well, I allowed myself to sleep in since I had stayed up late last night performing Raja's burial." Chase explained.

"I still can't believe that did that." Jack said.

"They're poachers, Spicer. The only life that they care about is their own. Killing for sport. Pathetic." Chase spat out the last word and slammed the cup down on to the counter.

"But haven't you-"

"What my past consists of is none of your concern and if I ever did commit such an act, it would only be out of necessity."

"Or revenge." Jack added, remembering the promise Chase had made last night.

"Never kill for revenge. That means that they've won, that their lives have ended and they will never feel the pain that you had to suffer through." Jack stared at Chase for a moment. That was a little new. He figured that killing people would be nothing to the warlord, he was evil and all, but apparently he wasn't completely heartless.

"I'm gonna go start working on-"

"Absolutely not." Chase cut Jack off. "With the state your mind is currently in, you are not stable enough to handle your equipment safely and wisely and I will not allow another one of those explosions to happen due to your lack of focus."

"I need to do something." Jack protested.

"Work on your shadowing some more." Chase suggested.

"But I've drawn that stupid box like a thousand times!" Jack whined.

"And you'll draw it a thousand more until you've mastered it." Chase stated.

"Fine, dad." Jack muttered, putting his face into Niso's neck.

"Nice to see that you've called me by the proper title this time."

"Don't mock me."

"I would never dream of mocking you, Spicer. It goes against my nature" Chase said as he left the kitchen.

"Making that joke twice doesn't make it any funnier!" Jack called.

"It still amuses me." Chase called back.

"You're a bastard!"

"Takes one to know one."

"You did not!"

"I did."

Jack let out a loud groan and slowly slide himself down until he was laying flat on the ground. Nani's head was now on his chest and Niso was staring down at him like he was a mad man. The warrior was only half right as Jack laughed at his and Chase's moment.

Chase was halfway to his chamber when he realized what had just happened. That argument was very playful. There was no true anger or attempts to actually insult or hurt the younger man. He was just poking a little fun at Jack and knew that it wasn't taken too seriously by the laughter that soon followed after his last comment. That was different. It was almost like something good friends would do, but he and Jack weren't good friends, they were barely friends, right? Chase sighed as he opened the door to his room, he was not in the mood to have such thoughts. His mind was already cloudy from loosing a very good warrior.

After getting himself cleaned up and put together, Chase found Jack again, this time with the young man laying on the ground next to the dinning room table. Niso and Nani were on the other side of the room, laying together, still obviously mourning. Chase took in a deep breath and smirked when he came up with a mischievous idea. He slowly walked over to Jack, seeing that he was attempting to draw the table. The warlord bent down as far as he could without catching Jack's attention and was planning on speaking softly, but something came over him as he shouted.

"Boo!"

"Mother dick!" Jack cursed, his entire body flailing madly and his pencil flying across the room. "What the hell, man!?" He snapped, watching as Chase laughed at his almost heat attack.

"I know I should be more disappointed with myself for acting in such a manor." Chase said between laughs. "But your face was just priceless."

"And I thought I was the childish one." Jack muttered.

"You are." Chase said, his laugh stopping as quick as it had started, but there was still a hint of it left when he spoke again. "What are you up to?"

"I got bored with the box, so I tried to draw the table." Jack explained.

"It looks terrible." Chase said, bluntly.

"Jeez. Thanks for sugar-coating it."

"'Sugar-coating' is not something that I do."

"I've noticed."

"Go back to drawing the box, you're not ready to draw a table."

"But drawing the same box over and over again is so boring!" Jack whined, rolling over to his back.

"Get over it." Chase grabbed the collar of Jack's shirt and lifted the younger man to his feet. "You wanted these lessons from me, so you are going to do what I say if you wish for these to continue." Jack was going to make a comeback, but decided it'd be a lot less dangerous for him to just sit down and do what he was told.

"Can I at least make the box red this time?" Jack asked after getting a blank sheet of paper placed in front of him.

"Sure, since you'll be able to practice your color shading as well." Chase grabbed a red pencil and was reaching for the purple pencil when it fell off the table. He reached out to catch it and soon found himself face-to-face with Jack, their faces a lot closer than he had expected them to be. Jack opened his mouth as if to say something, but only odd squeaks came out.

Chase found himself frozen as well, why wasn't he moving? There was nothing holding him there. He just had to lean back and their distance would return to normal. Chase noticed that Jack was staring at something, what could he be looking so intensely at? Was the younger man staring at his...lips? Why would he be looking there? Maybe he was waiting for words to come from them? Here he goes again, acting strange because of Jack. What was it about the genius that made him like this? The 'argument', scaring him intentionally and now he was inches away from Jack and couldn't form proper words of his own.

"Maybe...we should..." Chase was leaning forward, not really knowing why, but not questioning it at the moment.

"I...I..." Jack managed to stutter out, the stuttering becoming a yelp when a loud alarm went off. Chase snapped out of his moment and jumped away from Jack as the young man pulled his phone from his pocket. "There's a Wu near-by." Jack explained. "I connected my Wu detector with my phone so it'd go off if a Wu was within a ten mile radius of me." He added, assuming Chase was confused on why he knew there was a Wu. "It's moving closer, a bird or something must have it, it stopped. It's about nine miles west of here, should we go-" Jack stopped when he realized that Chase had taken off after he stated the direction. "Wait for me!" Jack snatched his heli-pack from the table and slipped it on as he ran out of the lair.


	14. Searching

Jack pulled a bush apart and peeked in, thinking that the Wu might be in there. The Wu detector said that it was in this general area. He really needed to upgrade the thing to have pin-point accuracy and wouldn't be pricking his fingers on bushes.

"Ow." He Jack groaned after a decent sized acorn fell on top of his head. "Damn squirrels." He muttered, looking up and expecting to see a rodent running across the tree, but found Chase sitting on the branch above him.

"I grow tired of this, Spicer. The monks will be here soon and I am in no mood to deal with them"

"I know, I know, but the Wu should be here somewhere."Jack said as he searched inside of another bush. "I just can't find the damn thing."

"Perhaps the Wu isn't that-" Chase closed his mouth when he saw a pair of golden glasses on the branch above him. "You have to be kidding me." The warlord made a face of annoyance and plucked the glasses from the tree. "Spicer." Chase said before dropping the Wu, the item landing in the young man's hands.

"Glasses? The Wu is a pair of glasses? They don't look special or anything, just golden."

"They are the Glasses of Desire. Whoever wears them will see what their heart craves the most at the moment." Chase stated.

"Cool." Jack put on the glasses and glanced up towards Chase, expecting to see himself on a throne of some sort, ruling the world or something. "I don't think they work." Jack slipped the glasses down a little and looked in font of himself. "Oh...oh never mind." Jack removed the glasses and tucked them into the front of his shirt. "You ready to head-"

"Jack Spicer!" A familiar yellow-skinned boy shouted as he and his friends jumped out of a near-by bush. Chase was already gone before the group even arrived.

"Too late, Xiaolin losers! I already have the Wu!" Jack stuck out his tongue and he flew away, laughing as the monks called after him.

Jack's laughing became a hum of questioning when he felt something hit his back. The buzzing of his heli-pack stopped and the young man yelled as he fell to the ground. He grunted on impact, landing on his side. Jack groaned as he crawled up to his feet, rubbing his now sore arm, thankfully he wasn't too high up to actually break his arm, but it'll probably be sore for a few days. He was going to check his heli-pack when the monk's voices were a lot closer than what he was comfortable with. Jack took off, he'll take care of his pack when he got back to to the lair. It was going to be a long run back home.

Chase was sitting at the head of the dinning table, sipping on a steaming cup of tea while while several of his warriors worked on a large meal for him and Jack. Neither man had eaten much that day and a nice hot meal sounded very pleasing at the moment. He glanced up from his cup when he heard Jack clump in, his footsteps louder than normal, hopefully that wasn't a sign of him fighting the monks and loosing the Wu to them.

"You wanna try the glasses?" Jack asked, setting the Wu down on the table.

"Did you fight with the monks?" Chase noticed the leaves and twigs sticking to Jack's clothing and hair.

"No, I flew away right after you left, but crashed a good three miles away. They must've threw a rock or something at my heli-pack to cause it to malfunction like that. I almost broke my arm from the fall and I'm already hurt enough as it is." Jack pointed to the already healing burn on his hand.

"Don't forget about the cut on the back of your shoulder." Chase added.

"If it opened back up I'm-" Jack stopped his empty threat when he saw his heli-pack. The gadget was now a solid red color, the design and everything covered. "No, no, no, no." Jack started rubbing at a spot on the heli-pack. "The didn't!"

"What are you talking about?" Chase asked.

"My initials! They covered up the initials that my grandma hand-stitched into my heli-pack!" Jack yelled. "That stitching was all that I had from her! My parents sold everything else!" Chase saw that Jack had started shaking.

"Spicer, if you're going to cry, just do it. Holding back will only make it worse."

"Cry!? I'm too pissed off to cry!" Jack slipped the pack back on. "I'm going to kill them!" Chase could tell by Jack's voice, that the young man was very serious.

"Spicer, calm down." Chase calmly stood up.

"I'm going to rip them limb from limb! I'm going to make them regret the day they took away the only thing I had from my grandma!" Jack started walking off. "I'm going to make them regret pissing of Jack Spicer, evil boy genius!" Chase let out a sigh, knowing he needed to do something before Jack went off and did something stupid and got himself killed.

"Spicer!" Chase slammed his hands against the table, making Jack freeze. "You have obviously been through a lot of emotional distress in the past two days." Chase spoke with a more even tone as he went over to the younger man. "I will not allow you to go off and take actions that I know you yourself will regret not long after." The warlord admitted to himself that he admired the anger that Jack was capable of having, showing that he could be serious when times called for it.

"But, my heli-pack."

"Give me it. They most likely cast some sort of color spell on it to irritate you." Chase said as Jack handed him his pack. "Very light spell, shouldn't be too hard to..." Chase waved his hand and the red coloring went away, turning the heli-pack back to it's normal design.

"You fixed it! Thank you, thank you!" Jack hugged Chase without thinking. It took a second to realize what he was doing and waited for Chase to shove him away like he normally does, but nothing happened.

"Are you about finished?" Chase asked with a hint of warning.

"Sorry." Jack stepped back and held his hands up.

"Take your gadget, go sit down, eat when the food's done and you are to go rest for the remainder of the day." Chase stated.

"Don't I need to-"

"No protests, Spicer. We both know that they are worthless against me." Chase picked up the Wu. "I'll return shortly." He said before leaving the dinning room, seeing that Nani and Niso were sitting at the edge of the room. "Make sure he doesn't leave, understand?" The two warriors nodded their heads and walked deeper into the room.

Chase walked up several flights of stairs towards his chambers. He usually kept any Wu he's gained in the room next to his own, not wanting the artifacts in his chambers, but close enough for easy access. He stopped in front of his room and hesitated for a moment before going into the room and closing the door behind him, his curiosity about the glasses overpowering him. The warlord stood in the center of his room and put the glasses on, blinking several times to adjust to the hue of gold.

"What are you doing in here?" Chase asked the figure he saw. He stiffened when he saw that the person only smiled and waved at him, not making any attempts to speak. "They must be acting up or something." Chase pulled the glasses down and the figure was no longer there until he slid them back up and saw the same person laughing and rubbing their arm, a shy smile on their lips. The warlord let out a shout and threw the glasses off, the Wu landing on his bed. "The Wu's defective." He told himself. It had to be, there was no way that the thing his heart currently desired was that. His mind was not stable enough to handle using the Wu properly at the moment. He'll try again tomorrow and he'll end up with something different. If he doesn't...he was going to have a lot of thinking to do.


	15. Watching

"Chase? Chase?" Jack called, holding a piece of paper in his hand. He believes that he's finally got the shadowing of the box right and even used coloring with it, but wanted to double-check it with Chase first. "Mr. Young." Jack sang, reaching the top of one of the many layers to Chase's home. "There you are, check it out. I think I finally got the shadowing right." Jack held the paper out in front of him. "Chase?" He lowered the drawing when Chase didn't say anything, was his drawing that bad? The warlord was staring off into the distance, the Glasses of Desire in his hands. "You tried them on? What did you see? Wait, don't tell me. Was it you standing over a burning world, everyone bowing at your feet, begging for mercy?" Jack spoke fast with excitement.

"Go." Chase said softly.

"What?" Jack asked.

"Go away!" Chase snapped, a lot louder this time. Jack yelped and ran off, not knowing why the other man was suddenly so angry for.

Jack decided that he wanted to get some fresh air after getting yelled at. He grabbed the basket of drawing supplies and walked out of the lair and to the edge of the mountain cliff. The young man sat down cross-legged and took out a clean sheet of paper and a green colored pencil. He was soon humming to himself as he filled the entire page with green, adding in some blues, reds, yellow and browns as the drawing became more and more filled. Jack felt something brush against his back and soon a loud purring was right next to his ear.

"Hi, Nani." Jack greeted the warrior with a light scratch to the back of her ear. Nani rubbed her face against Jack's hand before laying out next to him, showing that she was enjoying the warm afternoon sun as she stretched out her body as wide as it could go. "Where's Niso?" Nani lifted her head and looked back. Jack followed the gaze and saw Niso sitting at the lair's opening, head lowered and whole body slumped. "Come here." Jack patted the beside him and Niso slowly padded over to him. "It's okay big-guy, I miss him too." The young genius said as he petted Niso, running a hand through the warrior's fur.

"As do I." Chase stated as he walked over to the group.

"Well, hello grump-ass." Jack muttered, making a point to not look at Chase. Chase didn't say anything and only sighed at the comment. "You were kind of a dick."

"I know." Jack sat there and waited for more, but eventually gave up. That was the closest thing to an apology he was ever going to get from Chase.

"Mind if I ask what's wrong?" Jack probably shouldn't have asked, but he was curious as to why Chase had yelled at him with little warning.

"Nothing's wrong. I was simply thinking and I snapped because I was interrupted." Chase stated. "Nothing more, nothing less."

"What were you thinking about?"

"Enough questions." Chase saw the colorful scribbles on Jack's paper. "What are you trying to draw?"

"I thought you said no more questions." Jack said with a teasing smirk.

"Spicer." Chase warned.

"Couldn't help myself." Jack admitted, chuckling a little. "Anyway, I was trying to draw the forest out there." He pointed ahead.

"Those are supposed to be trees?" Chase asked, looking at the drawing again.

"Yes!" Jack hugged his drawing to his chest, sounding very offended. "Does it really look that bad?" He asked a moment later, pulling the paper away from him. "I thought it did okay with it."

"The coloring and shading is fine and the shadowing is done very well. I actually saw the boxes you had attempted to show me earlier and they were quite descent." Chase admitted, smiling a little and rolling his eyes when Jack let out a squeal of joy. "But your current drawing could use some help."

"What's wrong with it?" Jack asked. Chase clicked his tongue and Niso moved from his spot, going over to curl up with Nani on the other side of Jack. The warlord sat down and took the drawing from Jack, pointing to it as he spoke.

"While you colored each individual tree very well on its own, you need to add in the fact that there are other trees there as well. The taller trees that you have drawn will cast a shadow over the shorter ones." Chase started, seeing that Jack was soaking in everything that he was saying. "You also drew the trees as oak, but most of those trees out there are pine."

"Pine trees? Really?"

"You never noticed?"

"We could have a real Christmas tree!" Jack's eye's sparkled with joy and it wasn't until Chase snapped his fingers that he left his thoughts. "Sorry, got a little excited."

"I saw that. As I was saying, you need to fix the shapes of the trees and the shadowing and other than that the picture's fine." Chase gave Jack his drawing back.

"I'm going to have to redraw this, aren't I?" Jack asked.

"Yes, I suggest getting to it before the sun starts going down and changes the lighting." Chase put his hands behind his head and laid back, chuckling a bit at Jack's exaggerated groan as he started working on the drawing again.

Time went on and Chase let out a content sigh, his whole body feeling warm by the sunlight. It's been a good few months since he's allowed himself to just relax out in the sunlight. Chase opened his eyes and saw Jack working intensely on the drawing. The warlord has never noticed before that Jack would stick a little bit out his tongue out of the corner of his mouth when he was concentrating very hard. The tongue disappeared when Jack started to chew on his lips, leaning closer to the paper as he worked on a small detail. Jack dropped the pencil and paper and let out a grunt as he plopped back.

"I give up." He stated. "The sun's too far down and now the colors are off."

"You can work on it some more tomorrow." Chase said.

"Yay." Jack held out the word with heavy sarcasm. "That cloud looks like a monkey." The young man suddenly pointed up towards the sky. Chase tried to follow the hand and manage to see the cloud Jack spoke of.

"It kind of does and the one above it looks like a crocodile or a dragon." Chase watched as the cloud adjusted.

"Dragon, defiantly a dragon." Jack said. "The one to the right of the dragon looks like a cat. Its tail is even curly."

"A cat with only three legs?" Chase asked.

"It lost its leg to the war." Jack stated.

"What war?"

"The Feline Fiasco of eighty-two."

"And I assume that the boar beneath it lost it's leg to the Warthog War of eighty-four?" Chase asked, chuckling a little as Jack started laughing.

"It rhymed!" Jack said while he laughed even louder, stopping after he snorted. He threw his hands over his mouth and his pale face turned a light shade of pink.

"Did you just snort?" Chase asked, sitting up on to his elbows.

"I...I was mimicking the warthog you saw." Jack said as a question. Chase only raised an eyebrow and hummed. "Shut up." The young man mumbled, turning away from Chase.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't speak."

"Your face said enough." Jack peeked over at Chase when he spoke and put it back down when he was done. Chase ended up chucking again at Jack's reaction, he was clearly very embarrassed about his snort. Chase didn't know why the other man was so upset about it, he thought that the snort was kind of adorable. The warlord shook his head at that thought, that was not an appropriate thing to think of.

"I'm heading in, it's almost time for dinner." Chase stated.

"I'm starving!" Jack quickly scrambled to his feet and ran in before Chase was even up. Nani and Niso got up as well, stretched and followed the young man.

Chase saw that Jack had left the drawing supplies out and a pencil started rolling away as a light breeze pushed it. The warlord sighed and gathered up the supplies, reminding himself to scold Jack for forgetting to clean up after himself later. He started humming as he carried the basket into his lair, wondering where he's heard that tune before.


	16. Chasing

Chase sat in the center of his throne room, several candles surrounding him. He took in several deep breaths as he willed his body to relax, shutting off all thoughts and feeling as if his body was drifting away. Everything was silent. Everything was calm.

The warlord let out a growl when a loud laugh echoed not too far away from him? What does a man have to do to meditate peacefully around here? The laughter stopped and Chase went back to calming his mind but was cut off again when he heard feet banging towards him.

"You're it!" Chase snapped open his eyes when he felt a light tap on his shoulder. He saw Jack, Niso and Nani watching him, waiting to see what he was going to do.

"It?" Chase asked.

"Yeah, me, Nani and Niso are playing tag and now you're it." Jack explained.

"I'm not partaking in such a childish game." Chase stated, closing his eyes.

"What? Scared you can't catch us?" Jack's teasing tone made Chase reopen his eyes.

"I'm positive that I am much faster than you, Spicer."

"Prove it. Come _Chase_ me." Jack chuckled at his wordplay.

"I'm not-"

"You afraid of _Chase-_ ing me?" Jack started laughing. "You're never afraid to go _Chase_ -ing after some Wu." The young man saw that Chase was obviously holding back a laugh. Chase likes puns? "You can _Chase_ one of your warriors, but they might get a little _catty_."

"Your play on words is terrible, Spicer." Chase said, a hint of laughter in his voice.

"I'm just trying to S _picer_ up the conversation." Jack started doing a little shimmy.

"That's it! You want to play tag, I'll play!" Chase got up and started running towards Jack.

"Catch me if you can!" Jack laughed and took off.

He was expecting to get caught very quickly since Chase was right about him being much faster than him, but he looked back and saw that Chase wasn't running at full speed, he was playing with him. Jack jumped on top of the throne and made a silly face at Chase before hopping off, ducking behind the large seat. The young man peeked his head out of one side and popped it back when Chase lunged for him. Jack laughed as he ran around with throne with Chase on his tail. He scrambled over the one of the armrests, jumped across to the other one and used it to launch himself away from the piece of furniture. Jack looked back again and saw that Chase was repeating his little stunt, landing a lot farther away from the throne than he did. Jack also saw the smile on Chase's face, he was enjoying himself. Jack soon felt a hand grab his arm and before either man was able to stop themselves, Nani stepped out in front of Jack and the two tripped over the warrior.

Jack yelped as he fell, turning himself around as he did so he'd land on his rear and not break his face on the floor. He groaned and let out a soft squeak when he realized that Chase had landed on top of him. Jack could feel his heart pounding against his chest and he knew that his face was a bright red. He was panting from all the running and he waited for Chase's reaction since all he was doing was staring at him.

They were so close, Chase could feel Jack's heavy breaths on his face and his whole body was burning from embarrassment. This was defiantly a different point of view of Jack. The young man's clothes were a little disheveled from the fall, his goggles askew, his cheeks a bright red and he was gasping for air. Very different and...

Chase quickly threw himself off of Jack, his anger with himself intense, but showing as something different to Jack.

"Are you okay, Chase?" Jack asked.

"I'm fine!" Chase snapped. "Just continue with your game elsewhere!" Jack sat there for a moment. "I said go!" Jack slowly got up to his feet and walked out of the throne room with Nani and Niso.

Jack walked with his head down for a bit until Niso bumped himself against the young man's leg. Jack saw Niso skip ahead and flick his tail back and forth, hopping back and forth several times. Nani soon joined the male warrior and the two panthers showed that they still wanted to play. Jack smiled and chuckled before chasing after the two. The warriors ended leading Jack out of the lair, no one in the group realizing where they were as they played. Jack lunged after Nani towards the edge of the cliff and didn't know how close he was until he lost his footing and stumbled over the cliff. He only fell for a few feet before he managed to grip onto a small ledge that jutted out of the mountainside. Jack patted his chest for the button that would activate his heli-pack, but he soon remembered that he had removed his pack before starting the game, it affecting his running and not wanting to break it if he fell over.

"Help!" Jack cried. "Nani, Niso! Get help!" The young man looked down and felt his stomach turn at how high up he was. He didn't have a fear of heights, but being in this situation made things a lot worse. "Shit!" He cursed as he tried to pull himself up, not having enough strength in his arms and his feet unable to get a good grip on the dirt wall. He's fallen from pretty high distances before and was fine, but this one was probably not going to end well for him.

"Spicer, what are you doing?" Chase called from above.

"Oh you know, just hanging around." Jack's joke became a yelp as he felt his fingers slipping.

"Why don't just use your flying device?" Chase asked.

"I would love to! I really would! But it's not on me!" Jack dug his nails into the ledge. "Chase? Chase!?" Jack watched as Chase walked away. Was he really leaving him here to fall? Did he actually hate him like he used to claim to? Jack could feel tears burning the rims of his eyes. The young man blinked the tears away when the end of a rope dangled next to him.

"Grab the rope, Spicer." Chase ordered. Jack latched himself to the rope and was pulled up over the ledge. He knelt on the floor and took in deep breaths trying to calm his heart.

"Th-Thanks." Jack gasped out.

"I still need you alive at the moment." Chase stated, handing Jack his heli-pack.

"For...for the microlattice, right?" Jack swallowed, why was he questioning this?

"Of course." Chase put his hands behind his back.

"And nothing else?" Jack saw the confused look on Chase's face, he really needed to stop before he went too far.

"What do you mean?"

"Are you sure it's not cause...we're friends or something at least?" Jack lowered his head, scared to see Chase's reaction.

"We're not friends, Spicer. We're only..." Chase's sentence trailed off. What were they?

"Why is it that I don't believe that?" Jack didn't know where this sudden confidence came from, but it didn't seem to want him to stop anytime soon. "We've been having dinner together almost every day, we're together for most of the day, we live together. When was the last time you hit me? Threatened me? And I mean a real threat, not those little ones you make when I'm being stupid, all friends do that."

"Enough, Spicer."

"Why do you always call me by my last name? We've known each other long enough, done enough together for you to call me by my first name. It's not even that hard of a name. Jack. It takes a lot less time and effort to say 'Jack' than it does to say 'Spicer'." Jack said. "Friends call each-"

"We are not friends!" Chase yelled, making Jack flinch back. "You mean nothing to me, worm!"

"Worm?" Jack finally stood up, hugging his pack to his chest. "How long has it been since you called me that?"

"It's what you are to me! Nothing more than a disgusting bug, getting in the way and a nuisance to everybody who has to put up with you!" Chase's voice was harsh and it tore at Jack's heart.

"But I'm the worm you've kept because of the metallic microlattice."

"That's the only reason you're still here."

"Alright. Okay." Jack slipped on his heli-pack. "Well, it's done."

"What?"

"I finished the microlattice armor over a week ago. It was the day after we looked at the clouds and you showed me how to draw the trees." Jack spoke very softly as if he didn't have the energy or will to speak louder.

"And you never told me?" Chase growled.

"I was going to, but I kept getting distracted. Playing with the warriors, your drawing lessons, us just...hanging out." Jack ran a hand through his hair. "Truthfully, though, I didn't want to tell you cause I knew you'd throw me out the moment you realized I was useful anymore and I like being here. With you and the warriors. I haven't had a real friend or anything since Jacklyn died. I've always been alone and I finally felt like I had someone that cared for me, at least a little bit." Jack wiped an eye with the back of his hand. He was not going to cry over this. He's cried enough in front of Chase already. "Nani and Niso are always with me and they make sure that I'm okay and-"

"They're only doing that because I told them to watch you." Chase cut Jack off. "They were only following orders."

"I..." Jack's body deflated, his only hope being taken away.

"Leave. Before I make you." Chase warned.

"Fine!" Jack snapped. "I'll leave! I'll leave like everyone else!" Chase stiffened up a little at Jack's comment. "I thought you were cool, man! I know that you're evil, I'm evil too, believe it or not, but I didn't know that you were a heartless bastard!" Jack turned on his heli-pack and flew away. Nani and Niso ran out of the lair and to the edge of the cliff, watching Jack leave without them.


	17. Regretting

Chase stood in the center of one of the floors of his lair, he could see his warriors on a layer beneath him going through the metallic microlattice armor that Jack had completed. He noticed that Nani and Niso refused to get near the armor, the two sitting at the end of the layer and looking very upset. They got attached to Jack, they'll get over it, they always do. Everything was back to normal now that Jack left. Everything was calmer and quieter.

The warlord left, knowing that his warriors would figure out the new armor on their own. Chase walked through his lair, he was glad that Jack was gone or at least that's what he kept telling himself. All he wanted was the armor. That was the only reason the other man was there. He stopped when he found himself in front of Jack's room, well, former room.

Chase didn't know why he was, but he went into the room, leaving the door open behind him. The last time Chase was in this room, he really didn't get a good look around. There wasn't much in the room, but the walls were covered. There were tons of blueprints to inventions Jack must of thought of in the middle of the night and there were, even more, sketches of him practicing the lessons Chase had given him. Chase walked over to the desk and picked up the blueprint that was shown to him over a month ago, the armor upgrades. There were more notes added to it and little doodles around the rim, showing that Jack was trying to figure something out and drew while he thought. Chase tried to read the newer notes, but some of the terminology Chase could not understand since this is a little out of his field of knowledge.

The blueprint was put back down when Chase saw that there was a drawing underneath of it. Chase could feel his heart drop as he lifted the paper, getting a closer view of the picture. Jack had redrawn the picture that had started the drawing lessons and it was so much better than it was before. The outline was solid, the shading was done correctly, the blending was smooth and the shadows were basically perfect. Chase saw the Jack had gotten the color of his eyes completely accurate and he could see little details in them as if Jack knew his eyes better than his own.

Chase turned his head when he heard a squeaking noise behind him. Niso had jumped on top of the bed and buried his face into the pillow that most likely still had Jack's scent on it. Nani came in a moment later and joined Niso on the bed, the two curling up together. Ever since Jack left, the lair has been much calmer, more peaceful, and, Chase had to admit that it was also, boring. Chase has lived alone for many years and he thought that he could do it for many more, but after getting used to seeing and hearing Jack on a daily basis, listening to his laughs, his voice when he spoke to the warriors while he worked or his soft hums whenever the two were together and weren't talking. Chase started to hum the tune Jack always hummed, Nani and Niso lifting their heads, ears perking up. The warlord stopped and put the drawing down as well.

"It's not my fault you two chose to get attached to him." Chase muttered, sitting down on the bed with the warriors. "We all knew that he was going to leave eventually." Niso grabbed the pillow in his mouth and laid it on Chase's lap. Chase ran a hand across the pillow and sighed. "If you think you're going to get me to admit that I'm upset because he left, you're not going to succeed. I don't." Chase removed the pillow from his lap and sat it back down on the bed, seeing Nani lay her lead on top of it. Niso let out a soft mew and cocked his head. "Don't look at me like that. I don't miss him and neither should the both of you. We all knew that he was to leave after the armor was complete, I even told you when I assigned you to watch him. We only kept him safe to prevent the metallic mircolattice from being imperfect." Nani and Niso both stared at Chase, their faces showing that they didn't believe him. "I don't miss him." He repeated. "I don't." Chase plopped back on the bed, rubbing the heel of his palms into his eyes. "I don't miss his loudness, his immaturity, his inability to fight." Chase dropped his hands. "I don't miss his laugh, his smile, his willingness to do anything to keep you two and even myself happy. I don't miss having dinner with him every night and talking about everything and nothing or our drawing lessons or just sitting around and listening to some music."

Nani let out a soft mew and gestured with her head towards the desk. Chase looked at the desk again and saw that the Glasses of Desire were resting on it, he must have overlooked them. Chase got off of the bed and grabbed the glasses, rubbing his thumbs against the frame of the Wu before slipping them on, hesitating for a second, his eyes closed. What he's going to see should be different than the first time he put them on. There was no way it was going to be the same. Chase turned his head and opened his eyes, letting out a sigh when he saw what he's always seen.

"Hello, Spicer." Chase greeted the figure. The Jack vision smiled and let out a soft, silent laugh, but Chase knew what it would have sounded like if the man was actually there. Chase first though that he saw Jack because of the metallic microlattice he was capable of making. That what he desired at the moment was having the armor for his warriors. All he wanted was for his warriors and himself to be safe so he could continue his life as it was, little did he know how much allowing Jack to stay at his lair would change that. "Why? Why you?" Chase asked the vision, who only responded with another smile. "Why would I allow myself to get attached to someone like you? You're nothing like the other mates I've had in the past. The others were more serious, more contained more...like me." Chase rubbed his forehead. "But they all left, all of them saying that they were bored with our relationship, but you never got bored. You loved doing everything that they hated." Chase stepped closer to the vision, getting no proper reaction from the figure. "You'll just leave, I know you will. You've already left once and you've only been gone for a day and everything is wrong here." Chase tried to put a hand on the vision's chest, but it went right through it. "What is wrong with me? You're just a worm, a worthless bug and yet..." Chase took in a deep breath. "And yet you somehow mean something to me." Chase removed the glasses and stared at the empty space where the fake Jack had stood. "I've made a huge mistake." Chase tucked the glasses into his armor and took off, knowing that he needed to find Jack.


	18. Yelling

Jack sat on his couch in his living room. He felt weird calling it that, this is technically the house he grew up in, but it didn't really feel like home to him. He glanced at the large grandfather clock and saw that it has now been exactly twenty-four hours since he left Chair's lair. Jack let out a long sigh, all he's done is sleep, cry and eat since he left. His parents weren't home, they were in Europe or Asia or somewhere, he didn't really bother with reading the text properly before deleting it. He grabbed his fifth pudding cup in the past thirty minutes and saw that there was a spoon on top of it. Jack was already holding one, so the second spoon was for...

The young man tossed the spoon across the room, hearing it clatter against the floor. He needed to forget about that. There wasn't going to be any more of him and Chase doing anything together. It was just him and himself, like it has always been. Just him. Alone. No one to talk to besides his robots. Like it used to be. He should be happy. No more distractions, no more worrying about disappointing someone, no more anything. If he was supposed to be happy, then why was he crying again?

He sniffed and looked at the door when he heard it knocked on. Jack tried to wipe away his tears as he sat down his pudding and spoon, walked over to the door and opened it up.

"Hello, Spic-" Jack slammed the door shut before Chase could finish his greeting. "Well, that was slightly rude." Chase stated as he reopened the door and walked into the house.

"What are you doing here? Planning on insulting me more? Go ahead, I've stopped caring." Jack said, his back towards Chase.

"I've come to tell you to come back to the lair."

"Tell me? You're not telling me anything!" Jack snapped. "Kill me for 'disobeying', 'cause like I said before, I don't care anymore."

"If you don't care, then why are you crying?" Chase asked, hearing Jack's staggered breathing and recalling the sight of his ruined eyeliner.

"I've been crying for the past twenty-four fucking hours!" Jack finally faced Chase, his cheeks burning red with anger. "All because of you! All because I allowed myself to like you and believe that you could possibly even like me back, at least a little bit, but no! No, instead you treat me like shit, toss me aside like some used up toy!And when I leave, you tell me to come back so you can stab at my heart even more and make me hate myself every time I think of you as more than a friend. Which, according to you, we're not even that! I'm just some useless worm that you feel like you can step on whenever you want to! Not anymore, asshole! I'm not putting up with it anymore! I am going to eat my fucking pudding, work on my fucking inventions all by my fucking self like I always have been!" Jack took in several deep breaths when he had finished, not knowing how to feel now that all of that was off of his chest. He's held all of that in for so long and kept it so far down, it almost hurt to let it all out. Jack waited for Chase to say anything or react in some way, he was a little surprised that he was able to do his entire rant without getting interrupted. Chase had just stood there and took it, straight-faced and all.

"I see." Chase said after several moments of silence.

"That's it? 'I see'? That's all you have to say about this?" Jack let out a huff.

"I'll admit it, I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to say." Chase said. "Usually, in this situation they do what you are currently doing; get angry, scream, cry and curse at me before running off and I tend to just let them go, not caring enough to go after them."

"'They'? Who's they? Don't play the pronoun game with me, dude."

"My past mates." Chase admitted. "Or anyone that I've allowed myself some sort of attachment to."

"Well, sucks to be you." Jack scoffed, turning himself around, peeking over his shoulder as he continued to speak. "They didn't run away, Chase. They were scared off. You probably treated them like you treated me and they couldn't take it. You made them leave." Jack started to walk away, but stopped when his wrist was caught.

"I don't want to scare you away too." Chase said softly.

"Too late." Jack tried to pull his arm out of Chase's grip.

"Nani and Niso miss you, they refuse to leave your bed and they lost you not too long after losing Raja." Jack felt Chase's hold tighten on him.

"It has to be hard for them to properly mourn since their master is an emotionless bastard." Jack said.

"Emotionless? I'm not emotionless. I just don't allow my emotions to get in my way." Chase stated.

"Then you're heartless. You showed nothing after Raja's death!" Jack found himself yelling again. "I thought you cared for your warriors! I thought that you would be upset that one of them was murdered by a bunch of people you call cowards! If you ask me, you're the real coward for not having any emotions!"

"I have emotions!" Chase shouted. "You didn't see anything because I didn't wany any of my warriors or you to see me being weak! I cried when Raja died! I hide in my chambers for hours and sobbed into my pillow like some child who didn't get their way!" The two stood there for a second, Chase still holding on to Jack's wrist.

"You cried?" Jack asked.

"I cry over every warrior's death, they're the closest thing to a family I've had. I raised Raja since he was born. I feed him from a bottle for months every night. I had to get up every four hours to feed him and make sure he was fine, he and Nani were the first warriors I had that weren't taken in as adults." Chase's hand loosened up and his shoulders slumped.

"I'm not coming back." Jack stated, taking his hand back. "I'm not putting up with your bullshit to make them happy. It sounds like they've been through loss several times before and moved on just fine. They'll forget about me eventually, like you probably will." Jack yelped when Chase suddenly grabbed him and shoved the Glasses of Desire on to his face.

"What do you see?" Chase asked. "Is never coming back to the lair really what you desire?"

"You don't want to know what I see." Jack said, trying to remove the glasses.

"Tell me!"

"You! I see you!" Jack yanked the glasses off his face and threw them to the ground. "Every time I look through those damned glasses all I can see is you and I don't want it anymore!"

"Spicer-"

"I don't want to get hurt anymore! I don't want you to hurt me without even knowing it!"

"I'm...I'm sorry." Chase looked at the ground, Jack shook his head in disbelief, Chase never apologizes for anything. But, this could just be Chase trying to manipulate him again. Trick him and make him come back.

"I don't believe you." Jack said. The young man's eyes went wide as he watched Chase kneel, pressing his forehead against the floor.

"Please forgive me for my mistakes. I am truly sorry for any heartache I have caused." Chase stated. Jack stared at Chase, his heart racing and mind going even faster.

"I...I..." Jack stuttered. Chase meant his apology, he would never kneel or show any weakness towards anyone and yet here he was. Jack sank to his knees as well and patted the top of Chase's head. "Please get up." He said softly. "It's not fun to see my evil idol begging for forgiveness."

"Don't pat me." Chase said as he lightly moved Jack's hand away.

"Nice to see you're back to normal." Jack chuckled.

"Let's get going then." Chase stated and stood up.

"I never said I was coming back."

"But you accepted my apology."

"That doesn't mean I'm suddenly willing to go back."

"But Nani and Niso..." Chase let out a loud groan and rubbed his temple, as if contemplating something. "It's not just the warriors that miss you." He stated, obviously having a hard time.

"Chase?" Jack got up as well. "Do you miss me?"

"Perhaps a little bit." Chase said between gritted teeth.

"I didn't hear a 'yes'." Jack sang.

"Okay! Yes! I missed you!" Chase threw his hands down. "Happy!?" Jack grabbed Chase into a hug, a large smile on his face.

"Very."


	19. Admitting

Nani and Niso both leaped on top of Jack the moment the young man entered the lair. Jack laughed as the two purred loudly and rubbed their heads against him, demanding to be hugged or petted or anything.

"You guys really did miss me." Jack chuckled, struggling to breathe through the masses of fur. "Wanna know who else missed me?" The warriors looked back and forth between Jack and Chase when they saw that the genius' was smirking at the warlord.

"Don't make me regret this decision." Chase warned, half-heartily.

"You missed me, you missed me." Jack sang, Nani and Niso mewing along to the song. Chase crossed his arms and rolled his eyes, he was defiantly regretting this, but seeing Jack and his warriors so happy was worth it.

"I had noticed that your parents were not home. I assume that they were at work since most adults in this age tend to do that at around this hour. I suggest that you consider telling them about your new permanent home since you failed to inform them before when it was a temporary stay." Chase stated as he adjusted one of his arm cuffs. "What time do they usually get home for the day?"

"They're not coming home for that day." Jack said, running a hand through Niso's side as he spoke and refused to look at Chase at the moment. "They're never home, they didn't even know that I was gone."

"But's it's been almost two months."

"They didn't even know that I graduated two years ago, granted I did do two years early, but still." Jack let out a soft sigh. "I haven't seen them for four months and they were gone for six the last time. They don't know anything about me, sure they know I build things in my lab or the 'basement', but other than that, I'm not on their radar. They don't care about me and I don't care about them."

"You haven't had a very...pleasant life."

"Yeah, just a little." Jack let out a weak chuckle. "But you've been alive for over fifteen hundred years, you must have been through some shit too."

"Yes, of course, but after fifteen hundred years you tend to learn how to deal with those problems with ease."

"Didn't get over missing me." Jack grinned.

"You are not going to let that go, are you?" Chase groaned.

"When someone you've been idolizing for most of your life says that they miss you and want you back into their home, you kind of hold on to that for as long as you can." Jack stated.

"I guess I can understand that." Chase admitted.

"Anyways, not to get us away from the topic of my shitty life of anything, but curiosity has taken over me, what do you see when you put on the Glasses of Desire?" Jack asked, getting off of the floor with Nani and Niso pressed against his legs.

"Nothing." Chase lied.

"Don't try to sell me that. You gotta see something when you put them on. Everyone has at least one thing that they want."

"Like I said, I don't see anything." Chase insisted.

"Oh come on." Jack whined. "I told you what I see and basically admitted that I..." Jack cleared his throat. "Like you a little." He added softly.

Chase blinked and stood there, the realization finally kicking in. He was too busy thinking about himself and trying to convince Jack to come back without dragging the young man here unconscious, to actually register that Jack had somewhat of a crush on him. Was he really going to allow Jack to be a part of his life like that? After everything that has happened, the good, the bad, the really bad and the great, was he going to risk losing yet another mate? Or even allow Jack Spicer 'evil boy genius' to be one? The warlord remembered the drawing, how Jack took every lesson that he was taught to fix the picture that started all of these crazy thoughts and feelings. Clearly the younger man could be taught, he can listen and he can be mature and responsible whenever he wanted to, but Chase didn't mind his childish manors that much, some of them were even fun to participate in and having an excuse to relive his long forgotten youth made giving this a try sound a lot more pleasing.

"Fine. I'll show you what I see." Chase grabbed the Wu and slipped them on.

"I don't get it." Jack said after Chase looked at him for a bit. "All you're doing is staring at...me..." Jack let out a squeak. "Seriously!?" Chase saw that Jack's face was a bright red, shouldn't he be the one embarrassed at this admission? "I-I..." The younger man struggled to speak. "I don't know what to say or to do, truthfully."

"You don't have to say or do anything." Chase stated as he removed the glasses. "All you need yo know is that I'm willing to give this a try."

"Give what a try?"

"You being my mate."

"Your...your..." Chase hadn't believed that Jack's face could become any redder, but his comment proved him wrong. "Wh-what does that mean? What do I do? I've never been a mate before, is that like being a boyfriend, cause I've never been one of those either. I've only been friends with a few people and even then with all of them except for one, I wasn't very good at it."

"You're rambling, Spicer." Chase pointed out.

"I know, but I'm in the midst of a panic attack and talking is the only thing preventing me from hyperventilating and can you blame me?" Jack took in several deep breaths before letting out an extremely nervous chuckle.

"I guess I can't and to answer your question. Being my mate is like the 'boyfriend' thing I suppose."

"So that mean like holding hands and..." Jack swallowed. "K-Kissing?" The young man looked at his hands and started playing with his fingers.

"Yes and more if you wish, but only if you say yes." Jack stiffened up and had to prevent himself from moving away from Chase when the warlord stepped up to him, old habits of staying out of Chase's way still fresh in the back of his mind. "I may be evil, but I'm not completely heartless, I sold my soul, not my morals."

"O-Okay." Jack said as a high-pitched squeal. Chase smiled a little and put a hand on Jack's jaw, rubbing his thumb against the younger man's pale cheek, holding back a chuckle as he felt Jack retrain himself from flinching away. Jack was so shy to touch that wasn't him getting hit, although he wasn't the biggest fan of being attacked, but he didn't go doe-eyed and red-faced from a punch. Maybe this would a little more fun that Chase first thought. "And if you ever want anything, you simply have to ask and I'll try my best to give it to you. With reason, of course."

"Anything?" Jack asked, feeling his heart race and stomach knot up from Chase's touch.

"Anything." Chase confirmed, getting even closer to Jack and leaning in.

"Will you teach me how to fight?"


	20. Settling

"Chase...Chase?" Jack waved a hand in front of the warlord's face. He was getting a little worried since Chase had been staring at him for a good minute without moving. "Dude, you're freaking me out." Still no movement or even a reaction from Chase. "It's not like I asked you for your left kidney or something. I just want to be taught how to fight better." That was when Jack saw Chase's lips twitch, making him realized that Chase was struggling to keep a straight face. "Oh, you whore!"

"What!?" Chase was not ready for that off-handed comment.

"You're laughing at me!"

"I assure you, that I am not."

"And a bull doesn't smell his own shit!"

"Wha-" Chase stopped himself from asking, not really wanting to know where that phrase came from. "I am not laughing at you." He repeated instead.

"You are! After everything we've just been through! All of the 'Jack, I miss you." Jack attempted to imitate Chase, lowering his voice and puffing his chest out.

"That's not really how it went." Chase attempted to correct, but Jack kept going.

"'I can't stand being away from you, my mega-ego can't handle it'." Jack waved his hands near his head.

"I do not sound like that."

"'The only things that can match up to my ego are my freakishly large hands or my giant collection of cat toys'."

"If I recall correctly, you're the one who arrived at the lair one say with the multiple bags of cat toys and treats for Nani and Niso even though I informed you that they weren't real cats, but for some unholy reason, the two loved them anyways." Chase stated. Jack stopped for a second, before continuing with his over-extended rant.

"And now that my boyfriend-"

"Mate-"

"-Boyfriend, who I constantly tell that he lacks discipline and strength, wants me to train him, allowing us to bond over something that I know very well and I'm just gonna stare at him and laugh at his request even though not even ten seconds ago I just said I'd get him anything he wants as long as he asks." Jack was no longer imitating Chase's voice and was just straight up complaining at this point.

"Are you quite done yet?" Chase asked, crossing his arms.

"No!" Jack paused before speaking softer. "Maybe." Another, longer pause and even softer. "Yes."

"Five minutes, not even five minutes, after agreeing to let you be my mate and I'm already regretting every life choice I have ever made." Chase pinched the bridge of his nose. "Is karma finally catching up to me after all of these years?"

"Probably." Jack shrugged and smiled. "You are the one who agreed to let me live here, which led to the drawing lessons, which led to-"

"I get it, there is no need to clarify it for me." Chase grunted. Jack's smug smile made a nerve twitch in Chase's forehead. "I saw that drawing." He said, hoping for a diversion from the request.

"Drawing?"

"The one in your room."

"the one in my-you went in my room!" Jack yelled.

"Technically I own it since this is my lair." Chase protested.

"But still! You went in there and saw..." Jack's sentence trailed off as a hint of pink tinted his cheeks.

"Yes and it was very well drawn. I also noticed that you had attempted to draw a background, the forest outside of the lair I assume since it looked like you were attempting to draw some trees."

"Th-Thanks." Jack stuttered, still reeling from the compliment, that was something he was definitely going to take some getting used too. "And yeah, I was going to draw the forest, but I was going to do it in Fall colors. Reds, oranges, and yellows so there wouldn't be so much green since your armor and your hair are that color." Jack explained, having a hard time looking Chase in the eye and playing with his fingers as he spoke.

"It is actually very beautiful up here in the Fall. It can get pretty chilly, but I don't really get cold and the warriors have their fur and each other to keep warm." Chase said. "Winter's a lot worse, but we don't tend to do much during that season and the heat can stay consistent in certain rooms so you should be fine up here as well.

"I can buy some more winter clothes and we'll have to go back to my house to get the rest of my belongings. I didn't grab them all last time because I was prepared to be kicked out at a moment's notice and didn't want to lose everything. Although I wasn't really ready for me to leave like that."

"They usually aren't." Chase said under his breath, Jack unable to understand what was spoken.

"Wait a second!" Jack snapped and put his hands on my hips. "Don't think you can distract me like that! Why won't you teach me how to fight?"

"I thought we were done with this conversation." Chase groaned.

"Like hell we are! You've even said yourself, many, many times, that I need to train and I can't do it on my own. Here's a perfect opportunity. You're a master at fighting." Jack started punching the air, moving around Chase as he did so. One hand went closer to Chase than what was intended and Chase caught it by its wrist, letting out a sigh before releasing the hand.

"Yes, I am a master, but that doesn't mean I'm teaching you."

"You taught Omi." Jack pouted.

"Omi was already a skilled fighter, I only made him temporarily turn to evil." Chase corrected.

"Would you rather have me go to someone else?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm positive that no one else could handle you without snapping your neck within the first fifteen minutes." Chase stated.

"Can you?"

"I've dealt with you for the past two months and for the last month I've been with you every day for most of the day and you're still walking."

"So, you can teach me."

"I can, but that doesn't mean I will." Chase let out another sigh when Jack held his hands together and pushed out his lower lip.

"Please, please, please!" Jack begged.

"Spicer, cut that out. That won't work on me." Chase said.

"Please!" Jack held out the word as long as he could and took in a deep breath when he ran out of air and continued.

"If you don't stop that, I will make you stop." Chase's warning went unheard as Jack started saying his 'please's much louder. Chase waited for a second, giving Jack a chance to stop on his own and stepped forward, ready to thump the younger man upside the head. But something, whether it be supernatural forces or actual kindness, made Chase change his mind at the last second. Jack was about to start

Jack was about to start another round of 'please's when Chase grabbed his arm. He let out a yelp as the warlord yanked him towards him, the hand on his arm moving to his waist and the other going to his chin. The hand held the head still and prevented Jack from turning away from the kiss Chase gave him. Jack felt his heart, mind and soul stop as the surprisingly soft lips pressed against his. The kiss may have only lasted a second, but it felt like a lifetime to the young genius. This was new. This was very, very new and he was not complaining at all.

"Alright, I surrender. I'll train you." Chase said after parting the quick kiss. "Spicer?" Chase saw that Jack was no longer functioning and was basically limp in his grip, his arms being the only thing keeping him up. "You really haven't experienced much of this, have you?"

"N-Not really." Jack admitted, regaining some of his composure. "Wait. Did you say that you'd train me?" Jack perked up, already back to normal.

"Sadly, I did." Chase muttered.

"I'm getting fighting lessons!" Jack cheered and started jumping with excitement.

"Calm down."

"I'm going to be such a badass! Maybe I could make myself some armor too and wear a really cool bandana or a ninja mask or a-" Jack was cut off by Chase giving him another kiss, this one lasting a little bit longer than the last. Chase let out a soft chuckle after pulling away, running a hand through Jack's hair as the younger man recovered again.

"From drawing lessons to fighting lessons? Things have changed so much in only a month."

* * *

Stay tuned for the sequel; _Fighting Lessons_!


End file.
